Detroit home prices (US$/m²): returns since 2013
Detroit home prices, measured as the typical value per square meter (data: Redfin). This is the value of the property itself — bricks and mortar — not an investor's total return.
It excludes rent received and all costs (closing, property taxes, maintenance, vacancy). Compare it against U.S. inflation (CPI) and the S&P 500 below to see whether Detroit real estate kept up.
Detroit sits at the affordable end of the U.S. housing spectrum, the historic capital of the American auto industry and the Rust Belt city most associated with industrial decline. Its housing market has one of the most distinct arcs in the country: decades of population loss and disinvestment pushed values to among the lowest of any major metro, with whole neighborhoods hollowed out before a long, uneven recovery and downtown reinvestment. Prices here have been shaped more by local jobs and depopulation than by the coastal boom-and-bust cycle. The figures below track the building, not what an owner ultimately earned.
Cumulative return by window (in U.S. dollars)
| Window | Cumulative |
|---|---|
| 1 year | -5% |
| 5 years | 36% |
| 10 years | 360% |
Largest historical drop: -40% · annual volatility: 34% . Typical home price per m² (Redfin). Excludes rent received, closing costs, property taxes, maintenance and vacancy — the value of the property itself, not the investor's total return.
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Descriptive, educational content computed from official public data. Not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.