By Emily Bingham | ebingham@mlive.com | Posted November 06, 2018 at 06:14 PM | 

Top 10 Michigan Lakes with the Most Expensive Homes

Ever wonder what the most expensive lakes to live on in Michigan are? With more than 11,000 inland lakes and its entire shape defined by the Great Lakes, Michigan is a hot spot for lakefront real estate.

A recent report from LakeHomes.com, a multi-state brokerage and real estate database, offers some insight into where the priciest lakefront real estate is found in Michigan.

To compile its quarterly Lake Market Report, LakeHomes.com pulled MLS data to find the average listing price for all for-sale homes in each market on Sept. 1, 2018.

The top 10 most expensive lakes for lakefront homes in Michigan are listed below, ordered from least expensive lake to the most expensive lake at No. 1.

10. Lake Macatawa
Average list price: $1,110,482

This 1,700-acre lake in Ottawa County borders the City of Holland. Several parks border the lake, including Holland State Park.

9. Glen Lake
Average list price: $1,138,766
This gem in Leelanau County is actually comprised of two lakes -- Little Glen and Big Glen -- which are connected by a channel. The lakes drain into Lake Michigan via the Crystal River, and are a stone's throw from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Glen Lake is in northwest Lower Michigan, on the Leelanau Peninsula. 

8. Lake Michigan: South Haven area
Average list price: $1,151,259

Lake Michigan is the single biggest lakefront market in Michigan, though property prices can vary based on which region of the state the waterfront is in. Lake Michigan's South Haven shoreline is one of three Lake Michigan regions that appear on this list.

7. Lake Michigan: Petoskey area
Average list price: $1,173,463

The Petoskey area, up in the northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula, is home to some beautiful stretches of Lake Michigan -- including Little Traverse Bay and the high bluffs along portions of M-119 (the Tunnel of Trees). 

6. Spring Lake
Average list price: $1,253,800

Located near Grand Haven, Spring Lake is a meandering 1,300-acre lake that's drained into Lake Michigan by the Grand River. It borders the village of Spring Lake to the north.

5. Lake Michigan: Glen Arbor area
Average list price: $1,272,473

The village of Glen Arbor benefits not only from its proximity to Glen Lake (No. 9 on this list), but also to its sugar-sand beaches along Lake Michigan.

4. Upper Straits Lake
Average list price: $1,335,752

Upper Straits Lake is one of a smattering of inland lakes in Oakland County, in the metro Detroit area (and in fact, two more of its neighboring lakes top this list).

3. Walloon Lake
Average list price: $1,776,961

The 4,200-some acre Walloon Lake sits east of Charlevoix, in the northern Lower Peninsula. Ernest Hemingway's family had a cottage here, and the writer spent many childhood summers fishing these waters.

2. Upper Long Lake
Average list price: $1,820,090

This Oakland County lake, encompassed by West Bloomfield and Bloomfield Township, is less than 200 acres and has a shoreline approximately five miles long.

1. Orchard Lake
Average list price: $2,197,854

The most expensive lakefront home market in Michigan is Orchard Lake, which at 795 acres is one of the largest lakes in southeast Michigan's Oakland County.