A new analysis of the most expensive cities in the U.S. for heating costs lists 11 Michigan cities among the top 100 – more than any other state.

The home services online marketplace Home Gnome “compared nearly 500 of the biggest U.S. cities based on three categories” to rank 2025’s Most Expensive Cities to Heat a Home in Winter.

“More specifically, we looked at average electricity and gas bills (adjusted to average monthly income), average home sizes, and weather conditions, among 11 total metrics,” according to Home Gnome.

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Researchers produced an overall rank for each city, as well as sub-ranks for energy costs, cost inflators, and lack of energy efficiency.

“Cities in Midwestern states like Ohio, Missouri, and Michigan score in the more expensive half of our ranking with high gas and electricity bills and old homes that are more challenging to make energy-efficient,” Home Gnome reports.

A total of 15 Michigan cities landed on the list of 499, and all were ranked in the top half.

Home Gnome listed Flint as the most expensive Michigan city to heat a home with a fifth-place finish overall. The city ranked 28^th for energy costs, 64^th for cost indicators, and 79^th for lack of energy efficiency.

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Others in Michigan among the top 50 include Lansing in 22^nd, Detroit in 26^th, Southfield in 34^th, Westland in 38^th, Dearborn in 46^th, and Warren in 48^th. Missouri is the only state with more cities in the top 50 with eight, while Ohio had the third most with six.

The top 100 cities also included Wyoming in 56^th, Grand Rapids in 79^th, Sterling Heights in 92^nd, and Livonia in 97^th. Home Gnome ranked Ann Arbor 111^th, Rochester Hills 125^th, and Troy 132^nd.

Michigan’s 11 cities in the top 100 is by far the most, well ahead of Missouri with eight, and Ohio and Georgia, each with seven. Only five cities in neighboring Wisconsin made the top 100, while the notoriously cold winter states of Minnesota and New York had two and five, respectively.

All of the 100 least expensive cities for heating were located in California, with the exception of Seattle.

The findings are not surprising for Michiganders, who are facing repeated double-digit rate hike requests from the state’s monopoly energy providers working to fulfill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s unrealistic climate goals.

The governor breezed over that reality in her State of the State address on Wednesday, although she acknowledged “everyone’s eyebrows raise when that first winter utility bill hits.”

“Led by Representative Helena Scott and Senators Sam Singh, Rick Outman, and Veronica Klinefelt, the legislature expanded the Michigan Energy Assistance Program, or MEAP, which already saves about 50,000 households more than $700 bucks a year,” she said. “I was proud to sign this bipartisan expansion, which could save 335,000 more Michigan families hundreds on their energy bills.”

While some are receiving help from the state’s crushing energy costs, Consumers Energy is asking others to cough up another $248 million the company claims it needs to “replace up to 10,000 decades-old natural gas service lines that directly serve customers, plus put valves on major pipelines that can be remotely operated to respond to emergencies.”

Consumers’ December request to the Michigan Public Service Commission followed just a few months after the company implemented its last rate request in October, which ultimately amounted to $35 million from customers after legal wrangling with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and others.

The 1.5% October increase for residential customers followed a 3.9% increase in 2023, MLive reports.

About 1.3 million gas customers with Michigan’s other provider, DTE, were also hit with bigger bills in December after the MPSC the month prior approved a $113.8 million rate hike, as well as ever increasing surcharges through 2029.

It’s the same deal with electrical service through both Consumers and DTE, which have requested repeated annual double-digit rate hikes for some of the least reliable service in the nation.

“It’s a daily struggle to afford our utility bills and it is a daily struggle to deal with the numerous power outages that customers experience,” Layla Elabed, with the grassroots group We the People, told Michigan Public Radio at a DTE protest last year.