Property Tax Michigan: County Ratios, Taxable Value, and the Pop-Up After a Sale

The typical Michigan homeowner pays $2,904 a year on a house worth $231,600, which works out to 1.25 percent of market value in the Census Bureau’s latest five year survey. County by county, that share runs from 0.68 percent in Leelanau, north of Traverse City, to 1.83 percent in Ingham, home to Lansing. This Michigan property tax calculator applies your county’s ratio of median tax to median home value to the number you enter and shows it beside what local owners typically pay. Type in market value (a realistic sale price, or double the state equalized value on your assessment notice), never the smaller taxable value.

Proposal A: Your Bill Follows Taxable Value, Not Market Value

Each parcel carries three numbers. The assessor sets assessed value at 50 percent of true cash value, meaning the usual selling price, based on the property’s condition on December 31. County and state equalization then true up the totals to that 50 percent level, producing the state equalized value, or SEV. The third number, taxable value, is the one your millage is multiplied by.

Under Proposal A, which voters approved in 1994, taxable value may grow each year only by the rate of inflation or 5 percent, whichever is smaller, plus the value of any new construction, and it can never exceed SEV. The State Tax Commission set the 2026 inflation rate multiplier at 1.027, so a home with a 2025 taxable value of $120,000 could reach no more than $123,240 in 2026, however far the market jumped.

The Pop-Up: Why a New Buyer Pays More Than the Seller Did

The cap belongs to the owner, not the house. When title transfers, taxable value uncaps the next year and resets to that year’s SEV, a jump Michiganders call the pop-up. A family that bought in 2005 may hold a taxable value far below half of today’s price; the buyer starts at the full half. Transfers between spouses, or of a home to immediate family with no later commercial use, do not uncap.

On paper, a $300,000 purchase with a matching $150,000 SEV becomes a $150,000 taxable value the following year. At the Legislature’s sample rate of 32 mills, that is $4,800 a year, or 1.60 percent of the price. The same house in Kent County at the county ratio of 1.11 percent shows $3,330 in the calculator, because the Census ratio blends recent buyers with long-time owners whose values are still capped. Buyers should treat the calculator as a floor and ask the city or township for its local millage. The cap bites hardest where prices have climbed fastest, which helps explain why some resort counties post low ratios.

Mills, the 18 Mill School Levy, and the Principal Residence Exemption

Rates are quoted in mills: one mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of taxable value. Your total stacks county, city or township, school district, intermediate school district, and voter approved levies, plus the 6 mill state education tax that funds the School Aid Fund. County, township, and intermediate district operating millage is held to 15 mills combined (18 where county voters allow), though voted and debt levies and charter units fall outside the limit.

The single largest line most owners avoid is local school operating tax. A principal residence exemption (PRE) removes up to 18 mills of it from the one home you live in. File Form 2368 with your city or township by June 1 to cover the summer levy or by November 1 for the winter levy. On a $150,000 taxable value, those 18 mills are worth $2,700 a year, which is why second homes, rentals, and houses whose owners forgot to file pay well above their county ratio. Treasury audits claims and bills back tax and interest on denials.

County Ratios, From Leelanau at 0.68% to Ingham at 1.83%

On the 2024 five year estimates, Ingham leads at 1.83 percent, followed by Wayne (Detroit) at 1.63, Washtenaw (Ann Arbor) at 1.52, and Bay and Saginaw tied at 1.49. The low end sits almost entirely in the northern Lower Peninsula: Leelanau at 0.68, Benzie at 0.79, Otsego at 0.80, Alcona at 0.82, and Emmet at 0.83. The middle county lands at 1.09 percent, and 63 of 83 counties fall below the 1.25 percent statewide share. The statewide share tops the county midpoint because the populous southeast (Wayne, Oakland at 1.27, Macomb at 1.40) holds so many owners.

Bills track home prices. Washtenaw has the largest median payment, $5,678 on a $374,100 home, and Oakland follows at $4,371. Leelanau has the highest median value, $458,400, yet a median payment of only $3,118. In the Upper Peninsula, Luce shows the smallest median bill at $1,097, and Gogebic the lowest median value at $107,200.

Two runs through the calculator:

• Wayne County, $200,000 home: 1.63 percent gives $3,260 a year, or $271.67 a month, which is $356 more than the county’s $2,904 median payment.
• Kent County (Grand Rapids), $300,000 home: 1.11 percent gives $3,330 a year, or $277.50 a month, $113 above Kent’s $3,217 median.

Put one $250,000 house at each end of the range and the estimate moves from $1,700 in Leelanau to $4,575 in Ingham.

Challenging Your Value: March Board of Review, Then the Tax Tribunal

Assessment notices arrive ahead of the March Board of Review, which each city or township convenes in the week containing the second Monday in March (March 8, 2027). You can protest assessed value, taxable value, or classification there; check your unit’s posted dates. If the board says no, the next step for a home is a petition to the Michigan Tax Tribunal’s Residential and Small Claims Division, due by July 31. There is no filing fee when the home carries a principal residence exemption of at least 50 percent. July and December boards fix qualified errors, including a wrongly recorded transfer that uncapped a home.

Credits and Exemptions That Shrink the Bill

• Homestead property tax credit: claimed on the MI-1040CR with your income tax return. For tax year 2025, most filers get back 60 percent of the tax above 3.2 percent of total household resources, up to $1,900, provided resources are $71,500 or less and the home’s taxable value is no higher than $165,400. Seniors with resources of $21,000 or less and permanently disabled filers receive 100 percent of that difference, and the credit phases down once resources pass $62,500.
• Disabled veterans exemption: a full exemption of the homestead for a veteran rated 100 percent disabled or individually unemployable, and for an unremarried surviving spouse. Under Public Acts 150 through 152 of 2023 the assessor now decides claims, and an exemption granted for taxes levied since January 1, 2025 continues without yearly reapplication.
• Poverty exemption: each local unit adopts income guidelines no lower than the federal poverty guidelines and an asset test; file Form 5737 with the assessor before the March board finishes.
• Summer tax deferral: owners 62 or older, veterans, disabled owners, and a few others with household income of $40,000 or less can push summer taxes to February 14 penalty free.

Summer and Winter Bills, Penalties, and Forfeiture

Many Michigan owners get two statements. Summer bills, which carry the state education tax and county operating millage, go out July 1 and are generally due September 14. Winter bills are issued December 1. Everything unpaid after February 14 picks up a 3 percent late penalty (in 2026 the date slid to February 17 because of the weekend and Presidents Day). On March 1, local treasurers turn unpaid real property taxes over to the county treasurer, which adds a 4 percent administration fee and 1 percent interest per month. A parcel still unpaid a year later forfeits to the county treasurer, and after foreclosure title passes to the county on March 31 if the debt stays unpaid. Charter cities may set their own due dates, so read the statement.

Looking Toward 2027 and the Next Data Release

The AxMITax campaign to amend the constitution and abolish property taxes fell short of the 446,198 valid signatures it needed and will not be on the November 3, 2026 ballot, so the current system carries into 2027. Watch for the 2027 inflation rate multiplier, usually set in November, the tax year 2026 homestead credit limits, and your March notice. Our county ratios come from the ACS 2024 five year file, covering surveys from 2020 through 2024, and will change when the Census Bureau publishes the next five year release in December.

Sources: Census Bureau ACS five year file for 2024 (median taxes paid, B25103, and median value, B25077); Michigan State Tax Commission Bulletins 14 and 15 of 2025; Michigan Legislature, Taxpayer’s Guide for the 2025 tax year (January 2026); Michigan Department of Treasury (principal residence exemption; 2025 homestead property tax credit); MCL 211.7cc, 211.7b, 211.7u, and 211.34d; Bridge Michigan (May 22, 2026). Value and exemption questions go to your city or township assessor; payment questions go to your local treasurer, or to the county treasurer once taxes are delinquent.