How to read a Michigan millage rate
Michigan quotes property tax in mills. One mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of taxable value, and taxable value is not the same thing as what your house is worth. Three numbers are involved:
- True cash value is the assessor's estimate of market value.
- State equalized value (SEV) is half of that. A $300,000 home has an SEV of about $150,000.
- Taxable value is what the mills apply to. It starts at SEV, then can only grow by inflation (or 5%, whichever is less) each year you own the home. The 2026 cap was 2.7%.
So the tax on a home is taxable value times the total millage, divided by 1,000. Because taxable value is at most 50% of market value, a rate of 40 mills works out to about 2% of market value at the most, and less for someone who has owned the home for years.
The rate also depends on whether the home is your main residence. Homeowners who file a Principal Residence Exemption (PRE) skip up to 18 mills of school operating tax. That's why every city below has two rates: homestead (with PRE) and non-homestead (rentals, second homes, and anyone who forgot to file). The gap is almost always exactly 18 mills.
All rates here are the 2025 totals from the Michigan Department of Treasury, which is the latest year published statewide. Treasury posts 2026 rates in the spring of 2027. They don't include the 1% administration fee most cities add or special assessments.
Oakland County property tax rates by city (2025)
Cities often span several school districts, and the rate changes with the district. We list the district that covers most of each city. The last column assumes a $300,000 home with taxable value equal to SEV, which is where a recent buyer starts.
| City / township | School district | Homestead mills | Non-homestead mills | Tax on a $300,000 home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commerce Twp | Walled Lake | 24.53 | 42.19 | $3,679 |
| Rochester Hills | Rochester | 30.86 | 48.86 | $4,628 |
| Auburn Hills | Pontiac | 32.49 | 50.49 | $4,873 |
| Waterford Twp | Waterford | 34.36 | 52.03 | $5,154 |
| Bloomfield Hills | Bloomfield Hills | 35.40 | 49.02 | $5,310 |
| Wixom | Walled Lake | 35.82 | 53.48 | $5,373 |
| Troy | Troy | 36.04 | 51.46 | $5,406 |
| Novi | Novi | 36.32 | 53.31 | $5,448 |
| West Bloomfield Twp | West Bloomfield | 37.39 | 53.96 | $5,608 |
| Royal Oak | Royal Oak | 37.96 | 54.93 | $5,694 |
| Birmingham | Birmingham | 38.14 | 51.52 | $5,721 |
| Pontiac | Pontiac | 38.37 | 56.37 | $5,756 |
| Farmington Hills | Farmington | 42.87 | 55.77 | $6,431 |
| Ferndale | Ferndale | 47.16 | 65.16 | $7,073 |
| Clawson | Clawson | 48.62 | 66.62 | $7,293 |
| Madison Heights | Madison | 48.79 | 66.79 | $7,318 |
| Lathrup Village | Southfield | 54.03 | 64.69 | $8,105 |
| Southfield | Southfield | 57.02 | 67.68 | $8,553 |
| Oak Park | Oak Park | 60.07 | 78.07 | $9,011 |
| Hazel Park | Hazel Park | 62.22 | 80.22 | $9,334 |
The school district line can matter as much as the city line. Troy is the obvious case: homes in the Troy School District pay 36.04 mills, while the part of Troy in the Royal Oak district pays 30.63. On a $300,000 house that's about $800 a year for living on the other side of a boundary you'd never notice. Novi has a similar split (36.32 in Novi schools, 32.04 in Walled Lake).
Cheapest places in Oakland County
Out of 135 city and school district combinations in the county, the lowest homestead rates in 2025 were:
- Commerce Township (Walled Lake schools): 24.53 mills
- Oakland Township (Rochester schools): 24.68 mills
- Southfield Township (Birmingham schools): 25.64 mills
If you only want cities, the cheapest are Orchard Lake Village (29.85), Lake Angelus (30.40), the Royal Oak schools part of Troy (30.63), Rochester Hills (30.86) and the Walled Lake part of Novi (32.04).
The most expensive are the older suburbs just north of the Detroit border: Hazel Park (62.22) and Oak Park (60.07), followed by Southfield. These cities have lower home values, so they need more mills to raise the same money. A Hazel Park homeowner pays about 2.5 times the rate of someone in Commerce Township.
Property tax rates in Michigan's major cities (2025)
| City | County | Homestead mills | Non-homestead mills | Tax on a $300,000 home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | Wayne | 64.18 | 82.18 | $9,628 |
| Lansing | Ingham | 62.64 | 80.09 | $9,397 |
| Warren | Macomb | 52.97 | 67.83 | $7,945 |
| Ann Arbor | Washtenaw | 52.67 | 68.63 | $7,900 |
| Flint | Genesee | 52.34 | 70.19 | $7,850 |
| Dearborn | Wayne | 50.87 | 66.69 | $7,631 |
| Kalamazoo | Kalamazoo | 50.79 | 68.45 | $7,618 |
| Westland | Wayne | 48.09 | 66.09 | $7,213 |
| Livonia | Wayne | 41.24 | 59.24 | $6,185 |
| Wyoming | Kent | 40.69 | 58.69 | $6,104 |
| Sterling Heights | Macomb | 38.93 | 56.93 | $5,839 |
| Grand Rapids | Kent | 33.12 | 51.12 | $4,969 |
Detroit has the highest rate of any large city in the state, about 3.2% of market value for a homestead with taxable value at SEV. Grand Rapids is barely half that. Warren and Sterling Heights sit next to each other in Macomb County and differ by 14 mills, which is mostly a school district story again: most of Sterling Heights is in Utica Community Schools.
The "pop-up" tax when you buy
This catches a lot of buyers. The seller may have owned the home for 20 years, and thanks to the inflation cap their taxable value could be well below SEV. When the house sells, taxable value uncaps: the year after the sale, it resets to SEV.
So the tax bill you see on the listing is often not the bill you'll get. If the seller's taxable value was $90,000 and SEV is $150,000, your bill jumps by two-thirds the year after you buy. To estimate your real bill, use SEV (or half the purchase price) times the homestead millage. That's what the tables above do. Our guide to estimating taxes before buying covers this in more detail.
After a purchase you also need to file a Property Transfer Affidavit within 45 days and Form 2368 for the PRE. The PRE deadline is June 1 for the summer bill or November 1 for the winter bill. Miss both and you pay the non-homestead rate for the year, which on a $300,000 home is about $2,700 extra.
Ways to pay less
- Homestead Property Tax Credit (MI-1040CR): for tax year 2025 it's worth up to $1,900, for households with total resources up to $71,500 (it phases out above $62,500). Your home's taxable value has to be $165,400 or less. Renters can claim it too, counting 23% of rent as property tax. You file it with your state return, and you can claim it up to four years late.
- Poverty exemption: a full or partial exemption for low-income owners, decided by your local Board of Review. You apply every year on Form 5737.
- Disabled veterans: veterans with a 100% service-connected rating (or individual unemployability) pay nothing on their homestead. Since 2025 you don't have to refile each year. See our disabled veteran exemption guide.
- Appealing your assessment: residential owners have to protest to the March Board of Review first. If that fails, you can petition the Michigan Tax Tribunal by July 31. Our appeal guide explains how to build the case.
Worked example: Detroit vs Novi
Take a $300,000 house bought this year, so taxable value next year is the full SEV of $150,000.
- In Detroit: $150,000 × 64.18 / 1,000 = about $9,630 a year as a homestead, or $12,330 as a rental.
- In Novi (Novi schools): $150,000 × 36.32 / 1,000 = about $5,450 a year. In the Walled Lake part of Novi it's about $4,810.
That's a difference of roughly $4,200 a year on the same price, before the 1% admin fee. For more cities and ZIP-level figures, browse Michigan by county or go straight to Oakland County.