Affordable Living on Michigan's Forgotten Coast

Let your money go further while living the lake life.

When we first moved here, we were a bit taken aback on how inexpensive certain things were here. It’s not quite what it was 10 years ago, but it’s still an inexpensive place to live.

Housing costs may be the biggest and most noticeable cost savings. Not just housing itself, but insurance, taxes, etc all tend to be lower on Michigan’s Forgotten Coast.

You can keep food costs down here too. There are no Whole Foods or boutique grocery stores. There are plenty of roadside farm stands and farmers markets. Our summers & soil are perfect for gardening at home. Canning & preserving are commonplace in the area. You can buy meat in bulk, fresh from the farm around the corner. It’s takes a little while to adjust and learn how to take advantage of some of these things, but once you get into it there’s no going back. You can’t beat that “fresh from next door” food.

Part of what helps keep down the cost of living is that there aren’t a lot of high priced activities to spend your money on. Going out tends to be a much more reasonable proposition here. It’s unlikely you’re going to drop over $100 on dinner & drinks in a night out for two. You’re not going to lay down $500 on a family outing to the ball game on a regular basis. Personally, we save that money so we can do fancy things when we travel. We hunker down and get work done when we’re at home and we live large when we explore other communities…or at least larger than we could if we had the living expenses of those communities.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t fun things to do here!

There are a ton of FREE outdoor activities like biking, hiking, paddlesports, birding, stargazing, fishing, etc. We’ve always had great historical museums like the Frank Murphy Museum, Thumb Octagon Barn, Port Austin History Center, Marlette Train Depot, and many more! Find out more about local beaches, parks, campgrounds, and other outdoor activities here.

Beyond those activities, the area has embraced arts and culture much more over the last decade. It’s common to find live music in several communities during summer weekends. We have art fairs and festivals. We have large scale barn art projects from renowned artists, and smaller scale community placemaking arts projects. It’s getting cooler here all the time!!