While local retirees don’t necessarily live here year-round, they have a massive impact on the regional community and economy. Some impacts are predictable, like the way retirees skew Traverse City’s demographics. Others are less explored, like how thoroughly older adults dominate the local volunteer force.

Here's a look at six ways in which retirees are totally changing the narrative of how Traverse City operates.

They change our demographics
The Grand Traverse region skews older than other parts of the state. According to 2022 Census Bureau data, the median age in Grand Traverse County is 43.1, compared to 40.1 for Michigan as a whole. Some local counties skew even older, like Leelanau County, which has a median age of 55.2.

Roughly 22% of Grand Traverse County’s population, is 65 or older, compared to just 18.7% for the state.

The region has also gotten dramatically older in the past decade: As of the 2010 Census, just 12,886 Grand Traverse County residents fell into the 65-and-over demographic – about 14.8% at the time.

Local demographics are poised to skew older and older in the years to come. Per Census data, the three biggest five-year age ranges in the county, based on population, are 55-59 (7,336 people), 60-64 (7,057 people), and 65-69 (6,271 people).

They drive growing needs for in-home care and senior living
With northern Michigan’s population increasingly skewing older, those working in the senior care industry have been fretting for years about whether the region has the infrastructure and services to support that aging population. From senior living communities to in-home care providers, professionals in this space have repeatedly said they lack the space and/or staff to meet the needs they expect the region will face in the coming decades.

Amy Northway, president and CEO of Traverse City’s Monarch Home Health Services, says the situation is already reaching a fever pitch.

“Monarch has been in contact with significantly more older children who are involved in the long-term care of their parents and loved ones,” Northway says. “The children may be moving their loved ones into their homes, or into assisted living communities, but still want to travel and have the freedom to enjoy their retirement years. As a result, there are more and more requests for weekend caregivers and extended caregivers.”

They represent most of our “dark” homes
Many of the region’s retirees are snowbirds, people who own homes in northern Michigan, but only live here part-time. That part-time population – and the number of local homes they hold down as second or seasonal homes – means that Traverse City and its surrounding areas have a disproportionately high number of homes that sit empty and dark in the winter.

Speaking to The Ticker in 2021, Polly Cairns, the then-city assessor for the City of Traverse City, said that “approximately 55% of residential-classed property for the City of Traverse City Leelanau County portion and 42% for the City of Traverse City Grand Traverse County portion” have principal residence exemptions. In other words, roughly half of the homes in Traverse City are second homes, not primary residences.

Regional numbers are high, too. In 2022, Networks Northwest and Beckett & Raedar published a seasonal population study for northwest Lower Michigan, which found that the population for the 10-county region swells by 78% in the summer. That number does include tourism, but the report also specifically tallied the region’s part-time/second-home population, finding that 96,566 part-time residents call the area home during the summer months.

The number of seasonal homes in the region has become a hot-button issue in recent years as demand for – and cost of – housing has skyrocketed.

Per a 2023 Housing Needs Assessment from Housing North, vacation rentals and seasonal housing now account for more than a quarter of the total housing in the 10-county region, ranging from as low as 9.8% in Grand Traverse County to 40.3% in Benzie County. 

They bolster the local volunteer force
The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) relies on an army of 350 volunteers to carry out its mission of environmental preservation and stewardship in northwest Lower Michigan. Across six local counties, the organization protects more than 47,000 acres of land and 155 miles of shoreline. Volunteers lend a hand by building and maintaining trails, leading community hikes, spearheading events, assisting with efforts to combat invasive species, and more.

According to GTRLC Volunteer Coordinator Erica DesJardins, approximately 75% of the organization’s volunteers are retirees.

“There are so many examples, from our volunteer base, of retirees really committing themselves to our mission and going above and beyond what would be expected of a volunteer,” DesJardins says, before listing a few standout examples. One is Paula Dreeszen, a 66-year-old retiree from Interlochen who will be celebrating her 20th year of volunteering for GTRLC in 2025.

Anne Sutton coordinates 30-40 volunteers for GTRLC’s Maple Bay Farm, which last year donated more than 6,000 pounds of organic produce to local food pantries. Another is Rick Hager, who used to work as a land manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Iowa. Since retiring to northern Michigan, he’s put his technical skills to work for GTRLC, leading projects around seed collection, invasive species removal and prescribed burns.

They fill seasonal, part-time and even full-time jobs
Even beyond volunteer capacities, “older workers and/or retirees are very prevalent in our workforce in our region,” according to Rob Dickinson, regional director of business services for Networks Northwest.

Networks Northwest acts as a matchmaker to connect job seekers with employers, or vice versa.

While the organization serves all demographic ranges, Dickinson says older adults have become a bigger part of the equation over the past 10 years or so.

“This is all anecdotal, but retirees are coming into our offices looking for work for lots of reasons,” Dickinson says. “The most often relayed message is that they cannot afford to simply not work at this point. There is also a segment of older workers that are let go from their long-time employer and are struggling to find new employment.”

In recent years, as talent shortages have pushed employers throughout the region to get more creative in filling vacant positions, Dickinson says it’s become easier to find good job opportunities for retirees.

Statistically, employment among older demographics is on the rise. According to a 2023 analysis from the Pew Research Center, roughly 19% of the approximately 11 million Americans that slot into the 65-and-older demographic are employed – a significantly higher share than in past generations.

They bring institutional knowledge and investment capital to the table
While some local retirees are filling their time with volunteer work or part-time jobs, others are injecting lifeblood into the region’s economic development.

So says Warren Call, president and CEO of Traverse Connect. The region, Call notes, is a magnet for retirees who have had quite a bit of success in their careers and are looking to pay that success forward to the next generation.

Examples include Northern Michigan Angels, an angel investment group whose members invest in "scalable, early-stage companies” from throughout the state; majority of that group’s members are retirees. It’s also common, Call notes, for retirees to act as business mentors through SCORE, to sit on local nonprofit boards, to serve businesses or organizations in advisory capacities and more.

“The institutional knowledge of our retirees and seasonal residents is immensely valuable, and one of the unique attributes of this area that is a positive differentiator for us,” Call says.