Grand Traverse County growth outpaces Michigan, jobs and population surge

Grand Traverse County’s economy has been expanding fast enough to put housing, transportation and public services under steady pressure. Traverse Connect figures highlighted on May 13 showed private employment up 25 percent in five years, while population growth has run more than triple Michigan’s pace and is tracking peer targets through 2035.

The latest labor market analysis for the Traverse City metropolitan statistical area, which includes Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties, puts the region’s 2024 population at about 157,000. That was up 8,000 people, or 5.6 percent, from 2014, far ahead of Michigan’s 1.7 percent increase and close to the 6.5 percent national growth rate over the same period. The region is also older than the state overall, with residents under 25 and those over 65 each making up about a quarter of the population, a mix that raises the stakes for school enrollment, workforce replacement and health care demand.

Grand Traverse County’s own Census estimates show the pace continuing. The county had 96,625 residents on July 1, 2024 and 96,729 on July 1, 2025. That growth is modest in a single year, but it comes on top of a larger regional surge that has pushed more people into Traverse City, Garfield Township and the rest of the county while businesses keep looking for workers.

Housing data show why the growth story is also a cost-of-living story. Grand Traverse County had 48,178 housing units in 2024, 40,287 households in 2020 to 2024 Census estimates and 883 building permits last year. Median gross rent was $1,288, and median owner-occupied housing value was $339,400. Those figures help explain why availability remains tight for renters, first-time buyers and employers trying to recruit staff in a county where more jobs are showing up alongside more households.

Regional housing planners have been building around that pressure. Housing North’s 2023 Housing Needs Assessment covers the 10-county Northwest Michigan region, including Grand Traverse County, and is meant to support strategic housing decisions. The 2025 Region D housing plan names preventing and ending homelessness, strengthening the housing ecosystem and improving housing stock as the region’s top priorities, with a primary goal of expanding workforce housing and missing-middle housing that is affordable, accessible and attainable.

State housing policy has followed the same theme. In Traverse City on Jan. 31, 2025, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the Employer-Assisted Housing Fund, a $10 million matching fund meant to help businesses and local partners address the workforce housing shortage. Whitmer also said Michigan is creating 14 new jobs for each new housing unit. In May 2025, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority said a Grand Traverse County development would add 170 rental units, with 20 percent set aside for workforce housing.

Traverse Connect, which says it is the Grand Traverse region’s lead economic development organization, released its 2025 annual report on April 6, 2026 and said it highlighted area businesses, regional development metrics and efforts to grow second-stage businesses and attract talent. The numbers point to a county that is still drawing people and investment, but is now being forced to match growth with housing, infrastructure and services quickly enough to keep it livable.