Marquette County, Michigan Eviction Risk: Moderate

Marquette County's county-wide eviction risk lands at a 5/10 (Moderate) rating, placing it squarely in the middle third of Michigan's 83 counties: 40 counties are riskier and 42 are less risky. For landlords operating across this Upper Peninsula market, that middle-of-the-road average reflects a county where risk is contained but not negligible. With an average rent of $929, a rent burden of 31.1%, and a renter share of 40.5% of households, the demand base is real but financial stress among tenants is present enough to keep operators alert.

Across all 11 cities tracked in Marquette County, individual scores range from 4.4 to 5.1, a spread that matters in practice. A landlord buying in the county's lower-risk pockets faces a meaningfully different operating environment than one acquiring units at the county's high end, even if the two properties sit only a few miles apart.

The cities inside Marquette County

The highest-risk cities in the county are Marquette (population 21,325, score 5.1/10) and K. I. Sawyer (population 2,817, score 5.1/10). Marquette is the county seat and by far the largest population center; its university presence and higher renter concentration push its score to the county ceiling. K. I. Sawyer, a former Air Force base community, matches that ceiling despite its smaller size. Trowbridge Park follows at 5/10, and both Ishpeming and Gwinn register at 4.9/10.

The lower-risk end of the county includes Negaunee at 4.8/10, Harvey at 4.7/10, and West Ishpeming at 4.6/10, with the county minimum reaching 4.4 in some smaller communities. Risk in Marquette County is genuinely hyper-local: the gap between the county's best and worst cities is close to a full point, which translates to real differences in eviction frequency, screening urgency, and the cash reserves a prudent operator should maintain.

State-level laws that apply here

Michigan law (MCL § 554.601 et seq.) governs every tenancy in Marquette County. For nonpayment of rent, the required written notice is 7 days. A material lease violation or a no-cause month-to-month termination each require 30 days notice, and a serious or repeat health/safety hazard triggers a separate 7-day notice path. Once filed, an uncontested eviction typically resolves in 21 to 45 days; a contested case can stretch 45 to 120 days. Court filing fees run $45 to $150, sheriff lockout fees $50 to $150, and attorney fees $500 to $2,500. The full Michigan eviction process, from first notice through writ, applies uniformly across every county in the state. Michigan does not require just cause to terminate a tenancy, and the state preempts any local rent control ordinance, so landlords in Marquette County operate without rent caps. For a detailed cost breakdown, Michigan eviction costs lays out what a filing actually runs from start to finish. Michigan tenant protections outlines the habitability and retaliation statutes, particularly MCL § 554.139 and MCL § 600.5720, that define landlord obligations statewide.

With a poverty rate of 17.2% and 40.5% of Marquette County households renting, a meaningful share of the tenant pool carries financial vulnerability; the city-by-city grid above shows where that exposure concentrates and where landlords find relatively calmer ground.