Houghton Lake vs Prudenville

A side-by-side comparison of Houghton Lake and Prudenville: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Houghton Lake has the higher population (5,761 vs 1,286 in Prudenville). Houghton Lake has the higher median household income ($50,861 vs $35,833 in Prudenville). Prudenville has the higher median home value ($167,300 vs $122,800 in Houghton Lake).

Population, income & housing

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
Population	5,761	1,286
Median age	54.5 yrs	43.7 yrs
Median household income	$50,861	$35,833
Median home value	$122,800	$167,300
Median gross rent	$791	$788
Housing units	4,514	1,437
Homeownership rate	79.5%	65.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.4%	19.9%
Unemployment rate	2.7%	6.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
Population	3,350 → 5,761 (+72.0%)	1,942 → 1,286 (-33.8%)
Median household income	$28,816 → $50,861 (+76.5%)	$48,657 → $35,833 (-26.4%)
Median home value	$88,500 → $122,800 (+38.8%)	$147,200 → $167,300 (+13.7%)
Median gross rent	$634 → $791 (+24.8%)	$856 → $788 (-7.9%)

Houghton Lake

Population

3,3505,761

Median household income

$28,816$50,861

Median home value

$88,500$122,800

Median gross rent

$634$791

Prudenville

Population

1,9421,286

Median household income

$48,657$35,833

Median home value

$147,200$167,300

Median gross rent

$856$788

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
Under 5	4.1%	3.3%
5 to 17	11.8%	15.1%
18 to 24	5.2%	8.6%
25 to 34	8.8%	6.5%
35 to 44	10.0%	19.9%
45 to 54	10.9%	5.4%
55 to 64	17.3%	9.7%
65 to 74	19.0%	19.1%
75 and over	12.9%	12.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
White (non-Hispanic)	94.8%	100.0%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.5%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	1.1%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
No high school diploma	10.3%	2.6%
High school graduate	33.3%	31.6%
Some college or associate's	39.0%	45.9%
Bachelor's degree	8.3%	9.6%
Graduate or professional degree	9.0%	10.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
Drove alone	66.8%	74.6%
Carpooled	17.8%	8.5%
Public transit	0.2%	0.0%
Walked	2.4%	5.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	12.8%	11.9%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
1-unit, detached	85.0%	70.8%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	1.3%
2 to 4 units	1.1%	5.6%
5 to 19 units	1.8%	0.6%
20 or more units	0.1%	0.8%
Mobile home & other	11.4%	20.9%

Poverty & households

	Houghton Lake	Prudenville
Poverty rate	21.7%	16.2%
Average household size	2.05	2.05
Mean commute (minutes)	25	14
Median year structure built	1975	1975