Northern Michigan payment calculator
What you'll actually pay each month.
Most calculators use the seller's tax bill. In Michigan that number usually goes up the year after you buy, and a second home pays more than a primary one. This uses the real millage for the township you pick.
An estimate, not a loan quote. Taxes assume the assessor's value lands near your price; it often lags the market, which would make your real bill lower at first.
Why your tax bill isn't the seller's
Under Proposal A, a Michigan home's taxable value can only rise by inflation or 5 percent a year, whichever is less, while the owner keeps it. Long-time owners end up taxed on a value far below what the house is worth.
When the house sells, that cap comes off. The year after you buy, taxable value resets to the state equalized value, which is half the assessor's estimate of market value. On a cottage that's been in one family for twenty years, the bill can double or more.
Primary home or second home
A home you live in as your main residence is exempt from up to 18 mills of school operating tax. Second homes and rentals pay it. File the Principal Residence Exemption affidavit with the township or city by June 1 or November 1 to get it.
Summer and winter bills
Michigan splits the tax into a summer and a winter bill. The numbers here are both added together, then divided into months the way a lender's escrow would.
Special assessments
Township-wide fire, ambulance and police levies are included in these rates. Lake boards, sewer districts and road projects that hit only some parcels are not, and can add a lot. Many units, including most in Leelanau County, also add an administration fee of up to 1% to each bill. Ask for the last two tax bills on any house you're serious about.
Inside a city or village
City and village taxes are included for the city and villages listed. If an address is in a village, pick the village, not the township. The Village of Kalkaska isn't listed yet because its 2025 rate isn't published; it runs higher than Kalkaska Township.
Want the real numbers on a house?
Send Taylor an address. He'll pull the actual assessment, last tax bills and any special assessments, and tell you what the payment will look like the year after you buy.
Millage: 2025 total rates for each unit as published by the Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Antrim County 2025 apportionment reports, and for Kalkaska County, the county's posted millage sheet and 2025 township tax bills (rows marked estimate are not yet confirmed for 2025). Rates include township-wide fire, EMS and police assessments but not parcel-specific assessments or administration fees. Taxes are estimates. Janel Brown and Taylor Brown, Realtors, Real Estate One, Traverse City. Not financial or tax advice.