Fife Lake vs Traverse City

A side-by-side comparison of Fife Lake and Traverse City: population, income, housing, and more.

Fife Lake and Traverse City are places in Michigan. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Traverse City has the higher population (15,491 vs 359 in Fife Lake). Traverse City has the higher median household income ($71,731 vs $67,188 in Fife Lake). Traverse City has the higher median home value ($367,600 vs $185,200 in Fife Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
Population	359	15,491
Median age	49.3 yrs	42.2 yrs
Median household income	$67,188	$71,731
Median home value	$185,200	$367,600
Median gross rent	$1,000	$983
Housing units	247	8,583
Homeownership rate	86.2%	60.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.4%	47.0%
Unemployment rate	2.1%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
Population	382 → 359 (-6.0%)	15,570 → 15,491 (-0.5%)
Median household income	$54,659 → $67,188 (+22.9%)	$57,076 → $71,731 (+25.7%)
Median home value	$109,900 → $185,200 (+68.5%)	$266,100 → $367,600 (+38.1%)
Median gross rent	$788 → $1,000 (+26.9%)	$905 → $983 (+8.6%)

Fife Lake

Population

382359

Median household income

$54,659$67,188

Median home value

$109,900$185,200

Median gross rent

$788$1,000

Traverse City

Population

15,57015,491

Median household income

$57,076$71,731

Median home value

$266,100$367,600

Median gross rent

$905$983

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
Under 5	1.7%	3.9%
5 to 17	8.9%	12.5%
18 to 24	7.2%	8.3%
25 to 34	15.9%	16.1%
35 to 44	9.2%	12.9%
45 to 54	18.7%	10.5%
55 to 64	21.7%	13.0%
65 to 74	11.7%	15.0%
75 and over	5.0%	7.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
White (non-Hispanic)	96.9%	89.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.3%
Asian	0.0%	1.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.2%	3.4%
Hispanic or Latino	0.8%	4.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
No high school diploma	4.7%	4.3%
High school graduate	31.9%	17.7%
Some college or associate's	39.0%	31.0%
Bachelor's degree	21.0%	25.7%
Graduate or professional degree	3.4%	21.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
Drove alone	82.4%	59.7%
Carpooled	12.1%	7.4%
Public transit	0.0%	3.0%
Walked	0.0%	6.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	5.9%
Worked from home	5.5%	15.7%
Other means	0.0%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
1-unit, detached	88.3%	61.1%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	4.3%
2 to 4 units	3.2%	8.7%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	16.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	9.5%
Mobile home & other	8.5%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Fife Lake	Traverse City
Poverty rate	6.1%	9.1%
Average household size	2.26	2.02
Mean commute (minutes)	37	19
Median year structure built	1981	1960