Houghton Lake vs Roscommon

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

Houghton Lake and Roscommon 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 1,029 in Roscommon). Roscommon has the higher median household income ($54,375 vs $50,861 in Houghton Lake). Houghton Lake has the higher median home value ($122,800 vs $81,600 in Roscommon).

Population, income & housing

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
Population	5,761	1,029
Median age	54.5 yrs	55.4 yrs
Median household income	$50,861	$54,375
Median home value	$122,800	$81,600
Median gross rent	$791	$544
Housing units	4,514	594
Homeownership rate	79.5%	69.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.4%	12.4%
Unemployment rate	2.7%	2.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
Population	3,350 → 5,761 (+72.0%)	1,050 → 1,029 (-2.0%)
Median household income	$28,816 → $50,861 (+76.5%)	$35,163 → $54,375 (+54.6%)
Median home value	$88,500 → $122,800 (+38.8%)	$62,300 → $81,600 (+31.0%)
Median gross rent	$634 → $791 (+24.8%)	$490 → $544 (+11.0%)

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

Roscommon

Population

1,0501,029

Median household income

$35,163$54,375

Median home value

$62,300$81,600

Median gross rent

$490$544

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
Under 5	4.1%	3.6%
5 to 17	11.8%	7.9%
18 to 24	5.2%	11.2%
25 to 34	8.8%	8.3%
35 to 44	10.0%	7.3%
45 to 54	10.9%	11.2%
55 to 64	17.3%	26.8%
65 to 74	19.0%	14.1%
75 and over	12.9%	9.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
White (non-Hispanic)	94.8%	86.7%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.8%
Two or more races	3.5%	8.7%
Hispanic or Latino	1.1%	2.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
No high school diploma	10.3%	6.0%
High school graduate	33.3%	23.9%
Some college or associate's	39.0%	57.7%
Bachelor's degree	8.3%	10.7%
Graduate or professional degree	9.0%	1.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
Drove alone	66.8%	74.1%
Carpooled	17.8%	9.4%
Public transit	0.2%	2.3%
Walked	2.4%	8.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	12.8%	4.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
1-unit, detached	85.0%	70.0%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	2.7%
2 to 4 units	1.1%	3.7%
5 to 19 units	1.8%	17.5%
20 or more units	0.1%	4.7%
Mobile home & other	11.4%	1.3%

Poverty & households

	Houghton Lake	Roscommon
Poverty rate	21.7%	11.6%
Average household size	2.05	1.84
Mean commute (minutes)	25	18
Median year structure built	1975	1969