Boyne City

Boyne City sits at the east end of Lake Charlevoix and is the county’s largest city — a lively, walkable lakefront town with a real downtown of shops, restaurants, and breweries, plus a marina and a riverwalk along the Boyne River. Its motto, “Where Life Meets Lake,” fits: the waterfront and the lake are the center of life here.

A century ago this was the lumber capital of the area, with sawmills lining the lakefront and thousands more people than today; when the timber ran out, the town reinvented itself around the lake and tourism. Boyne City is probably best known now for the National Morel Mushroom Festival, held each May, when thousands of people come to comb the spring woods for prized morel mushrooms and celebrate downtown. Boyne Mountain, one of Michigan’s big ski-and-golf resorts, is just a few miles away.

For buyers, Boyne City offers a bit more year-round, working-town life than the smaller resort villages, along with lake access and a busy events calendar. It draws both families putting down roots and second-home owners, so the market stays active across price ranges.