MI
Living in Fremont, Michigan
Inland in Newaygo County, where Gerber started in 1927 and where the same money buys land instead of frontage. My office is here.
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Living in Fremont
Fremont is the one town I cover that is not really a lakeshore town, and pretending otherwise would not help you. It sits inland in Newaygo County, east of the shoreline, and it works differently from Montague or Whitehall. It is also where my office is, which means I am here most days rather than passing through.
What Fremont has instead of a Great Lake is a town that actually functions on its own. Fremont Lake sits right by it, with a public beach, a play area, a campground, an ice cream shop and a boat launch. Around the town the county opens into farmland and acreage, and that is a large part of what people come here to buy.
Fremont neighborhoods run from in-town streets within reach of Main Street, out to parcels with real land attached. If you have been looking at lake cottages and found the prices steep, Fremont is usually where the same money buys considerably more ground.
M120 connects Fremont across to Twin Lake and on toward the Muskegon area, so the lakeshore is a drive rather than a different life.
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Neighborhood Tour and Local Lifestyle
Fremont Lake is the easy one: beach, play area, campground, an ice cream shop and a boat launch, all publicly accessible.
The year here has a shape to it. The National Baby Food Festival in July, the Harvest Festival at the end of September with the hay art and the tractor parade, the Newaygo County Fair, the farmers market through the season, and car shows.
For a small, quiet town there is a surprising amount along Main Street. The Blind Squirrel Tavern at the Main Street end does the non-traditional end of a bar menu, including a PB&J burger, and it has been there since 2011. Tamarac, out at the west end of Main, is the big one: a heated pool, rehab, a spa, a cafe, and something like eighty group fitness and aquatics classes a week. It is not the only gym in town either, so it depends what kind of workout you are after. The cafe there does a deli counter and protein shakes, though it is shut for building work at the moment.
Freckled Fawn is the new clothing shop. The Bronzing Lounge is the only tanning salon in town, and it sits in the plaza that also holds the movie theater, an ice cream shop, a hair salon and a Mexican restaurant. There is also a Fremont Airport, which surprises people.
Down at Fremont Lake there is a proper beach with a park and an ice cream shop, and it is not far off Main Street. On a hot afternoon that is where the town goes.
Expect horse-drawn buggies and tractors. They use these roads alongside everything else, so slow down well before you reach one, give it room, and pass only when you can see properly. The detail that delights people the first time they see it: Meijer and Walmart both have parking set aside for horses and buggies, right there in the lot with everything else.
You will get stuck behind a tractor sooner or later. I have stopped minding. If the pace is the thing you came here for, being held up for two minutes on a county road is not really the problem it would be somewhere else.
Bellwether Harbor out on 48th Street is a non-profit shelter and training center, and it does more than adoptions. You can pay to use their washing stations for your own dog and the money goes back to the shelter. They run dog and puppy training, and they put on their own arts and crafts fair.
The Lunch Pail is the one people send you to for lunch. Wraps and sandwiches, Boar's Head meat.
Places to eat
Tavern
The Blind Squirrel Tavern
A bar menu off the usual track, PB&J burger included. On Main since 2011.
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Things to do
On the lake
Fremont Lake Park
Beach, play area, campground, ice cream and a boat launch, close to Main Street.
Open in Google MapsFitness
Tamarac Wellness Center
Heated pool, spa, cafe and something like eighty classes a week.
Open in Google MapsDogs
Bellwether Harbor
A shelter that also rents dog-wash stations, runs training and holds its own craft fair.
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The Town Where Gerber Started
This is worth knowing even if you never think about it again, because it explains the shape of the town. Gerber baby food was invented in Fremont in 1927.
Dorothy Gerber was straining solid food for her seven-month-old daughter Sally that summer, on a pediatrician's advice. Her husband Daniel, whose family ran the Fremont Canning Company, worked out that straining fruit and vegetables was something a canning business could do at scale. Gerber has been headquartered here ever since, and it is still investing in the plant.
Which is why the festival in the middle of July is the National Baby Food Festival, though almost everybody local calls it the Gerber Festival. Carnival, arts and craft vendors, the lot.
Then in late September there is the Fremont Harvest Festival, run by the Fremont Area Chamber. The hay art competition is the part worth turning up for: businesses and residents build sculptures out of hay, and you vote by donating canned goods, which all go to the True North Food Pantry. There is a harvest parade with antique tractors, and a flea market. The Newaygo County Fair is here too, along with the farmers market and car shows.
How Search The Lakeshore Serves Fremont
I am Tamara Hekkema, a REALTOR® with Greenridge Realty, and my office is at 1311 W Main Street here in Fremont. I have lived in West Michigan my whole life.
Fremont buying tends to be about land rather than water, which changes the questions but not the method. On acreage the things that decide whether a parcel works are buildability, septic and well, setbacks, drainage, and how you actually reach it in every season. Those get settled before you own it, never after.
So I go and walk it. That is The Lakeshore Recon Method, and it applies to a back forty exactly as it applies to a lake lot: I read the property myself and tell you what I found, including when the answer is that you should not buy it.
For sellers it is The Lakeshore Demand Method. The marketing starts before your home reaches the MLS, in front of a paid and targeted audience, so buyers are already waiting. A written report reaches you every week, and you can cancel at any time if you are not satisfied.
More than $4 million in closed sales over my last twelve months, up from under a million the year before.
Fremont Neighborhoods and Communities
The division that matters here is town, lake, or land.
In town. Streets within reach of Main Street, where most of the everyday housing is and where you can walk to something.
Fremont Lake. An inland lake with public access, a beach and a launch. Frontage here is a different proposition from Great Lakes frontage and prices accordingly. See waterfront homes in Fremont.
Land and acreage. The reason a lot of people look at Newaygo County in the first place. Farmland, woods and building parcels. See land in Fremont. Arriving from out of state? Relocating to Fremont covers the first year.
Fremont Housing Market and Home Types
Housing runs from in-town homes on ordinary lots, through lake frontage on Fremont Lake, to farmhouses and acreage out in the county. In September 2026, 6 homes sold in Fremont at a median price of $246,250. The median home took 8 days to sell, and 41 homes were for sale. (MichRIC data via InfoSparks, September 2026. Updated monthly.)
Fremont is generally the more affordable end of what I cover, and the land is the reason. A budget that buys a modest cottage on the water buys a house with acreage here. Whether that is the right trade depends entirely on what you actually want to do at weekends.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fremont on the lakeshore?
No, and I would rather say so plainly. Fremont is inland, in Newaygo County, east of the Lake Michigan shoreline. It has Fremont Lake right by town with a public beach and a boat launch, and M120 runs across to Twin Lake and on toward Muskegon. If Great Lakes frontage is what you are after, this is not the town. If land is what you are after, it very much is.
Why is Fremont cheaper than the lakeshore towns?
Because you are not paying for Great Lakes frontage, and because there is more land. The same budget that gets you a modest cottage on the water will generally get you a house with real acreage here. It is a trade rather than a bargain, and which side of it suits you depends on what you want your weekends to look like.
Is Gerber really from Fremont?
Yes, and it started here in 1927. Dorothy Gerber was straining food for her seven-month-old daughter that summer, and her husband Daniel realized the family's Fremont Canning Company could do it at scale. The company has been headquartered here ever since. It is why the July festival is the National Baby Food Festival, though nearly everybody local just calls it the Gerber Festival.
Buying in Fremont
The method
How I do it in Fremont
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