Sylvan Lake, MI population, income and ZIP codes

Sylvan Lake city is a small town in Michigan, with 1,672 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #341 of 745 ranked by population — larger than 54% of them. The median age here is 52.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Sylvan Lake city earn a median of $106,806 a year, 36% above the national figure of $78,538 and 73% above the $61,715 median for the 438 Michigan cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 3.6% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Sylvan Lake city is valued at $356,800, 17.6% above the national figure and 115% above the $166,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,132 a month, 19.5% below the national figure, or roughly $13,584 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 12.7% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 82.1% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 52.9 puts Sylvan Lake city well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.