Moross/Chandler Park (48224) Leads Detroit at 16.2%, Triple the National Median

Yields across 67 Wayne County suburbs range from 16.2% in Moross/Chandler Park (48224) down to under 4% in the premium outer suburbs. That spread is wider than the gap between short-term rental and long-term rental at the city level, which suggests that, on these benchmarks, where you buy in Detroit appears to matter more than how you rent it out. This ranking shows which suburbs lead on gross yield and why the pattern exists.

Moross/Chandler Park (48224) Tops Detroit at 16.2%, More Than Triple the National Median

Gross yields = annual income / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. Filter by property type and bedroom count to match your strategy.

The Top Suburbs Lead Because Detroit's Inner-City ZIPs Have the Widest Rent-to-Price Gap in the Country

Moross/Chandler Park (48224) sits at the top of the ranking with 16.2% gross yield because it combines an entry price of about $85,000 with monthly rent of about $1,100. That price is roughly 43% of the city-wide 3-bed median of about $197,000, but rent is close to the city average. Detroit's price recovery has lagged its rent recovery in the inner ZIPs: prices fell during the post-2008 collapse and have only partially recovered in inner ZIPs, while rents climbed steadily as out-of-state investors and local tenants competed for stabilised housing stock. The result is one of the widest rent-to-price ratios of any major US metro.

Warrendale/Cody Rouge (48228) and Fitzgerald/Eight Mile (48238) round out the top three at 15.9% and 15.5% respectively. Both are inner-ring residential ZIPs on Detroit's west side, characterised by single-family housing stock built between the 1920s and 1950s. Tenant demand here comes from working households who need proximity to Detroit's downtown, midtown medical campus, and the Ford Rouge complex in Dearborn. These are long-term rental suburbs by character: tenant turnover is steady rather than seasonal, and short-term rental demand is thin outside of major event weekends. Highland Park/Palmer Park (48203) and Indian Village/West Village (48214) sit slightly higher up the price ladder with slightly higher entry prices, where Indian Village/West Village (48214) (covering Indian Village and West Village) adds an additional layer of architectural appeal that may support a short-term rental premium for renovated stock, though the data here is thin.

Why Cheaper Suburbs Yield More: Rent Doesn't Fall as Fast as Price

The yield-price relationship in Detroit is starker than almost anywhere else in the country. An investor entering at about $85,000 in Moross/Chandler Park (48224) versus about $197,000 at the city median faces a very different capital-risk profile. The cheaper suburb produces more yield per dollar invested, but it also concentrates risk in a narrower tenant pool, an older housing stock that requires more capital expenditure, and a neighborhood trajectory that depends on Detroit's broader recovery. The premium suburbs cost more not because they generate more rent, but because buyers are paying for stability, condition, and the prospect of capital appreciation that inner-ring Detroit may or may not deliver.

This trade-off is particularly sharp in Wayne County because the price floor is so low. Detroit has 3-bed houses transacting under about $44,000, while the most expensive 3-bed houses reach $750,000, a roughly seventeen-fold spread that is one of the widest in any single county dataset. That gulf is what makes Detroit's yield arithmetic structurally different from other US metros: at the bottom, rent-to-price ratios stay near the city average even as prices collapse. The premium suburbs sit at the top, where rents reflect quality but prices reflect both quality and the additional premium buyers pay for school catchments, lower crime, and resale liquidity.

For Context: Detroit's Most In-Demand Suburbs Yield Less, Trading Income for Stability

For context, here is how some of Detroit's most in-demand suburbs compare. These are established areas where investors typically accept lower yields in exchange for capital growth potential, easier financing, and stronger resale liquidity.

High-demand suburbs for context. Same methodology as the yield ranking above.

Plymouth, Canton, and Northville buyers are pricing in Plymouth-Canton and Northville school district reputations and the resale liquidity that comes from owner-occupier demand, neither of which the inner-ring ZIPs offer. Short-term rental performance varies inside this group: established suburbs with cultural amenities or proximity to Detroit's event venues (Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, the riverfront) can generate stronger short-term rental yields than the long-term yield alone would suggest, while pure-residential outer suburbs see thin overnight demand and are better suited to long-term tenants.

What the Yield Table Doesn't Show: Capital Growth, Vacancy Risk, and Stock Quality

A high yield can mean depressed prices rather than strong rents, and Detroit's top-yielding suburbs sit firmly in that category. Total return is income plus capital growth, and the premium suburbs in the second table have historically delivered better appreciation than the top-yield ZIPs, even though their gross yields look unimpressive. An investor optimising for total return rather than current cash flow may find that a 6% yield in a stable inner-ring suburb beats a 16% yield in a ZIP where prices have not moved in a decade.

Vacancy risk is the second hidden variable. The yield ranking assumes the property is rented; in some of the highest-yield Detroit ZIPs, the rental pool is thin and tenant quality varies widely. A two-month vacancy on a $1,100/month rental destroys roughly 17% of the year's gross income, and turnover costs (cleaning, repainting, lost rent during marketing) add up faster on a $85,000 property than a $300,000 one when measured against gross income. The third variable is housing stock condition: many high-yield Detroit ZIPs are dominated by pre-war single-family houses that need ongoing capital expenditure (roof, electrical, plumbing) that the cost line items in standard yield calculations don't capture.

View Detroit in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Detroit's Yield Range Sits Far Above State and National Medians

Wayne County's median yield of 7.4% sits 2.0pp above the Michigan median and 2.1pp above the national median of 5.3%. The top-yielding suburb at 16.2% is roughly three times the national median, while even the bottom of the ranked suburb list sits comfortably above national averages. This is structural rather than cyclical: Detroit's price-to-rent ratio is among the lowest of any major US metro, a legacy of the post-2008 housing collapse and the city's slower demographic recovery. For investors who can absorb older housing stock and thinner tenant pools, Detroit's rent-to-price arithmetic has few US peers; only Cleveland, Memphis, and Birmingham sit in the same bracket.

The reader looking at this ranking has two natural next questions: what does the yield look like for a 2-bed apartment rather than a 3-bed house, and which specific ZIPs inside each suburb are actually transacting at these medians. The dashboard answers both, with every bedroom count, property type, and individual ZIP filterable side-by-side.

Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.