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Wayne County residents spend an estimated average of $131 per month on their home electric bills, per an Axios analysis of data collected and shared by climate newsroom Heatmap News.

Why it matters: Tensions over rising energy bills and power-hungry AI data centers are emerging as a key political issue nationwide and should be a potent force in this year's midterms.

Other forms of energy are also adding pressure to Americans' expense lists, like auto gas price hikes amid the Iran war — though the ceasefire deal could potentially lead to some relief.

Metro Detroit's regular gas price average was $3.91 on Monday, up about 33 cents from a month ago, per AAA.

Data: Heatmap News, OEDI, EIA, HUD, U.S. Census; Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

By the numbers: Wayne County's electric bills average the same as Macomb County's and are just cents off from Oakland's.

They're under the American average of $158 a month, and dramatically lower than places like San Francisco County, California, which averaged $282.

Zoom out: Counties in Alabama and Texas dominate the top of the most-expensive list, broadly speaking.

Alabama's electric bills are relatively steep, partially due to higher consumption, per local news outlet WBRC. Experts also cite the state's rate structure.

Yes, but: Even though they're at the lower end nationally, Metro Detroit's energy costs stack up.

Detroiters have higher utility bills because of the city's old housing stock, often creating extra challenges for low-income homeowners and seniors on fixed incomes, per a U of M researcher.

As of 2020, a quarter of low-income Metro Detroit residents spent above 19% of their income on home energy bills, per the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Anything above 10% is considered a "severe energy burden."

State of play: The Michigan Public Service Commission approved a 4.6% rate hike in February for DTE Energy electric customers, according to the Detroit News.

DTE says it's been increasing reliability, and that the increase will fund system upgrades.

State Attorney General Dana Nessel has raised concerns over what she called a "never-ending cycle of rate hikes" to fund "costly capital projects" over investments to reduce outages.

How it worked: To create the electric bill average map, Heatmap News provided Axios with a dataset of average electrical bills by utility company, which Axios analyzed and mapped, using data from HUD and others to create county-level averages.

What we're watching: Whether efforts across the country to contain energy prices — like forcing tech companies to foot the bill for their AI power needs — actually work.

Mapped: How Metro Detroit electric bills stack up

Energy costs are climbing, with gas prices and rate hikes adding pressure on households.

A DTE worker shown from below, up working on electrical wiring along a telephone pole.

DTE Energy workers repair utility poles during a snowstorm power outage in Detroit in 2022. Photo: Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Wayne County residents spend an estimated average of $131 per month on their home electric bills, per an Axios analysis of <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="data" data-vars-click-url="https://electricity.heatmap.news/" data-vars-content-id="22d7916e-9b84-4895-933e-ae16b13349e8" data-vars-headline="Mapped: How Metro Detroit electric bills stack up" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://electricity.heatmap.news/" target="_blank">data</a> collected and shared by climate newsroom Heatmap News.Why it matters: Tensions over rising energy bills and power-hungry AI data centers are emerging as a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="key political issue" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2026/04/05/data-centers-midterms-state-bans-bills-ai" data-vars-content-id="22d7916e-9b84-4895-933e-ae16b13349e8" data-vars-headline="Mapped: How Metro Detroit electric bills stack up" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2026/04/05/data-centers-midterms-state-bans-bills-ai" target="_self">key political issue</a> nationwide and should be a potent force in this year&#x27;s midterms.

Money

News

Welcome back to our regular roundup of city government goings-on.

🚩 Dirty dirt: Denzel McCampbell is among City Council's members who want answers about potentially contaminated home demolition sites the city is cleaning up.

McCampbell's April 2 memo to Detroit's construction and demolition director seeks more details about the city's plan for removing contaminated dirt, a lack of security around open-hole sites and the pollution risk level for nearby residents.

Catch up quick: Detroit is testing hundreds of properties for contaminated dirt used to backfill vacant lots. The homes were demolished by contractors as part of the city's large-scale blighted home tear-down program.

The city found arsenic and lead at dozens of home demolition sites, the Free Press reported as of January, and has begun removing contaminated soil.

Detroit laid out tighter controls, including having demo contractors receive backfill dirt from approved providers and notifying neighbors of soil quality testing, per the News.

An interactive map shows progress on testing and results where available.

🗣️ Echoing the UN: City Council applauds the UN's recent vote to recognize the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans as the "gravest crime against humanity."

Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday supporting the UN's action, which also called for addressing these generational wrongs with meaningful reparations.

Several council members noted that the U.S. was among just three countries to vote against the UN resolution.

Detroit City Chatter: Questions on dirty dirt

Council members want more details on the city's clean-up plan.

Animated photo illustration of the hand from the Spirit of Detroit statue. The gold sphere with sun rays sticking out of it floats out of the hand, and opens and shuts repeatedly, like a talking mouth, spitting out jagged sound lines.

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Welcome back to our regular roundup of city government goings-on.🚩 Dirty dirt: Denzel McCampbell is among City Council&#x27;s members <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="who want answers" data-vars-click-url="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/council-wants-to-know-who-pays-to-clean-contaminated-dirt/" data-vars-content-id="896fe184-c908-40c0-8abd-8aab9c2d3edb" data-vars-headline="Detroit City Chatter: Questions on dirty dirt" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.bridgedetroit.com/council-wants-to-know-who-pays-to-clean-contaminated-dirt/" target="_blank">who want answers</a> about potentially contaminated home demolition sites the city is cleaning up.

Politics

Development

A gif that shows Joe grabbing a sun shaped stuffed animal from a claw machine 

Joe's successful claw machine endeavor at Klawsome! in Novi. GIF: Annalise Frank/Axios

A new development in Novi is turning a stretch of suburbia into a hub for Asian-inspired retail.

Why it matters: Sakura Novi reflects a shift in suburban retail that blends housing, dining and shopping to serve a growing Asian population and draw visitors from across the region.

The project is testing whether a concept more common on the coasts can work in Metro Detroit.

Daytime view of a modern shopping center: blue sky, cars parked along the curb, curved gravel path through green lawn with rocks and a pond, leafless trees, and a Paris Baguette storefront with a purple mural.

Sakura Novi's retail storefronts. Photos: Annalise Frank/Axios

🚙 Axios Detroit took a field trip to Sakura Novi this month.

Before going, we'd seen online chatter questioning if the development is a true walkable destination or just a glorified strip mall — and whether it's really built for Asian American Metro Detroiters.

Zoom in: The mix of uses stood out during our visit.

🍰 We started at Paris Baguette, a South Korean bakery-cafe chain.

QR codes inside the shop advertised Sakura's residences — a telling sign of the development's interconnectedness.

We split a meal-in-one pastry: hash brown bread with ham, mozzarella and a drizzle of ketchup.

🧸 From there, we checked out Klawsome!, a claw machine arcade with cute plushy prizes.

Joe nabbed a toy on his first-ever try, while Annalise devastatingly missed time after time in her mission for a stuffed capybara.

Two photos on a blue-gray background: left shows a chaotic claw machine filled with colorful plush toys and a neon sign reading "KLAWESOME"; right shows a glass bakery display case with trays of croissants and pastries.

Klawsome! (left) and savory hot dog pastries at Paris Baguette.

📗 BookOff was next, a Japanese resale chain that opened earlier this year with a nostalgic mix of secondhand video games, anime figurines, graphic novels, CDs, DVDs, books and records.

🍣 By lunchtime, the only sit-down option was Chubby Cattle Wagyu Shabu House, an upscale hotpot restaurant with meals starting around $50.

The price point sent us across the street instead for sushi at One World Market.

🏠 Living: Sakura Novi includes 176 apartments, with more than 100 already completed. Leasing began in February.

What's next: More tenants are on the way, including a U.S.-based Japanese department store chain called Teso Life with cosmetics, food, home goods and toys.

Others will include the Dancing Pine, a high-end Korean steakhouse; a tea shop; Sumo Japanese Grill, a quick-service hibachi eatery; and a Korean skincare store.

Sakura Novi developer Scott Aikens says there's retail space left to fill, and they're seeking tenants offering health, beauty, fitness, sushi, ramen or dessert.

Sunlit residential courtyard with brick-and-white townhomes, balconies, and a wooden boardwalk over a pond. Rocky landscaping and leafless trees frame a central pile of logs 

Sakura Novi's pond, walkway, playground and residences.

Catch up quick: The idea has been years in the making, going back to at least 2016 — rooted in Novi's longstanding ties to Japanese businesses and inspired by similar retail hubs in coastal cities.

What they're saying: Aikens says he worked with local officials and the Japanese consulate-general to create a more international, market-style destination.

"We've seen a lot of these internationally themed retail projects coming up on the East Coast and West Coast and now in Texas and Atlanta," says Aikens.

The big picture: City leaders say the project represents a $55 million private investment and reflects decades of demographic change. Asian Americans make up about 28% of Novi's population, nearly double the share in 2010, per the Detroit News.

"The project helps attract and retain global talent — particularly expatriate professionals and their families — by offering culturally familiar amenities and housing in one place," city manager Victor Cardenas told Axios in an email.

A person in a dark sleeve reaches to grab a red Dragon Ball manga volume 5 from a shelf of colorful manga spines in a bright store aisle.

For tenants like BookOff, the bet is already getting results.

Manager Yasuko Kitajima told Axios that the store is seeing steady foot traffic early on as the company expands beyond its New York and California locations.

"[Business has been] quite good," she said. "Many customers are coming now."

Inside Sakura Novi's new retail and dining hub

The development aims to bring destination retail while reflecting the city's growing Asian American population.

<figure><img alt="A gif that shows Joe grabbing a sun shaped stuffed animal from a claw machine " height="450" id="403cfb0c-4af5-49be-b0ad-492afb08195a" src="https://images.axios.com/CW2s28E3G6LbI4LZ4UedCTh4hxs=/2026/04/16/1776363839551.gif" width="800"/><figcaption>Joe&#x27;s successful claw machine endeavor at Klawsome! in Novi. GIF: Annalise Frank/Axios</figcaption></figure>A new development in Novi is turning a stretch of suburbia into a hub for <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Asian-inspired retail" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2025/08/18/168-asian-mart-expansion-madison-heights" data-vars-content-id="a39be478-b0cd-42d8-824a-4f3ee83cdc74" data-vars-headline="Inside Sakura Novi&#x27;s new retail and dining hub" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2025/08/18/168-asian-mart-expansion-madison-heights" target="_self">Asian-inspired retail</a>.Why it matters: <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Sakura Novi" data-vars-click-url="https://sakuranovi.com/" data-vars-content-id="a39be478-b0cd-42d8-824a-4f3ee83cdc74" data-vars-headline="Inside Sakura Novi&#x27;s new retail and dining hub" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://sakuranovi.com/" target="_blank">Sakura Novi</a> reflects a shift in suburban retail that blends housing, dining and shopping to serve a growing Asian population and draw visitors from across the region.

Latest news on Wall Street, Corporate America and financial regulation.

Business

Local artists' work is for sale on the walls of GW Home, the small-format, upscale downtown store from furniture retailer Gardner White.

Zoom in: On a recent visit, pieces were displayed from Kresge Foundation artist fellow Ivan Montoya, painter and muralist Michael Polakowski and vintage wallpaper collage artist Amy Feigley-Lee.

Two photos of art. On the left, two paintings of flowers. On the right, an abstract, geometric piece made of intricate wallpaper layers. 

Two pieces by Ivan Montoya (left, $1,200 each); and "Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #16" by Amy Feigley-Lee ($2,500).

Catch up quick: The store at 1201 Woodward Ave. opened in June, selling furniture, home decor, art and accessories.

It partners with Detroit-based ArtClvb to sell local artists' paintings, pottery, prints, fiber work, lights and more both in-store and online.

GW Home spotlights local artists downtown

Find local art on the walls and shelves of the upscale Gardner White store.

Interior of a modern showroom with a wooden bed against a teal wall, a round table of stacked books in the foreground, a bold painting on the right, and a person browsing shelves behind. 

"Offering" by Michael Polakowski ($2,000), with GW Home products in the background. Photos: Annalise Frank/Axios

Local artists&#x27; work is for sale on the walls of <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="GW Home" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2025/02/05/gardner-white-open-furniture-store-downtown" data-vars-content-id="ef585840-b2fa-4894-94a2-f45d78864ef2" data-vars-headline="GW Home spotlights local artists downtown" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2025/02/05/gardner-white-open-furniture-store-downtown" target="_self">GW Home</a>, the small-format, upscale downtown store from furniture retailer Gardner White.

Culture

Things to Do

Calling all hummingbird fans! If you want plants that attract them to your yard, look no further than Native Plant Month.

Why it matters: It's easy to agree with the idea of planting native — it provides the best food for local wildlife and conserves our habitats.

It's another thing to put native planting into practice, but local experts say it doesn't have to be prohibitively difficult.

State of play: The Garden Club of America has worked since 2022 to establish April as Native Plant Month in all 50 states to promote their cultivation.

As of last year, 44 states now celebrate it — including Michigan since 2023.

What they're saying: "Don't let perfection be the enemy of good. Any native plant is better than no native plants," says Lindsey Kerr, a horticulture educator for MSU Extension based in Wayne County.

Gardeners should ultimately aim for 70% native, but 50% may be an easier goal, Kerr says.

Left panel shows red-orange, hanging flowers with yellow centers in a green garden. Right panel shows a bumblebee on a tall pink-lavender flower spike.

Wild columbine (left) and a bee on anise hyssop. Photo: Courtesy of Lindsey Kerr, MSU Extension

Zoom out: Native plant usage has been on the rise for years, though an industry survey estimated just 10%-17% of national nursery plant production is native species.

Between the lines: Find your county's native plants on MichiganFlora.net or through Wild Ones. Keep Growing Detroit also sells them in Eastern Market.

The right planning, combinations and choices mean little to no maintenance, watering and fertilizing because the plants are so suited to the climate.

🌾 Zoom in: Kerr and Meredith Simpson, a member of the Garden Club of Michigan, shared some native Metro Detroit plants to try.

Some classic flowers, like black-eyed Susans.

Columbine and Cardinal flowers to attract hummingbirds.

Swamp or butterfly milkweed and New England aster for supporting monarch caterpillars and butterflies.

Anise hyssop, which gives off a licorice scent.

Native perennial grasses like little bluestem.

An expansive sunlit garden with winding gravel paths, colorful grasses and shrubs. 

Native grasses at Oudolf Garden. Photo: Courtesy of Ryan Southen

For apartment-dwellers and non-gardeners:

Even potted native plants on a balcony can make a difference, Kerr notes.

Those interested can also volunteer at the Greening of Detroit, Cadillac Urban Gardens and many others — or help remove invasive species.

Worthy of your time: Visit native plants this spring and summer at the three-acre Oudolf Garden on Belle Isle, which offers a combination of native and non-native flowers and grasses.

"We always tell people the garden changes every two weeks, so just keep coming back," says Simpson, also COO of Friends of the Oudolf Garden.

How native plants can make your yard wildlife-friendly

Local experts give advice on supporting native plants in Metro Detroit for Native Plant Month.

A butterfly on swamp milkweed. Photo: Courtesy of Lindsey Kerr, MSU Extension

Calling all hummingbird fans! If you want plants that attract them to your yard, look no further than <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Native Plant Month" data-vars-click-url="https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/proclamations/2026/04/01/april-2026-native-plant-month" data-vars-content-id="fe7a833c-7cf5-4803-9069-c79629ee75a2" data-vars-headline="How native plants can make your yard wildlife-friendly" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/proclamations/2026/04/01/april-2026-native-plant-month" target="_blank">Native Plant Month</a>.Why it matters: It&#x27;s easy to agree with the idea of planting native — it provides the best food for local wildlife and conserves our habitats.

Annalise Frank

Featured stories

Inside Sakura Novi's new retail and dining hub

How native plants can make your yard wildlife-friendly

GW Home spotlights local artists downtown

Detroit City Chatter: Questions on dirty dirt

Mapped: How Metro Detroit electric bills stack up