One of the subjects I discuss with all new clients are Michigan Real Estate Taxes and how they are calculated.

Please disregard the amount of tax charged to the currnet owner.

All real estate is re-assessed when acquired by a new owner (with a few exceptions). Therefore, your taxes will almost always be different than the current tax amount paid by the current owner.

The formula for estimating your real estate tax is a simple formula of multipying the Taxable Value of your property (Approximately 50 Percent of Market Value) by the combined millage rates for the appropriate County, City, Village, or Township.

In the interest of keeping this very simple, you can take the Market Value of the Property and multiply it by 2 Percent to arrive at a Worse Case Scenario. For example, a Home valued at 600k could have a tax bill for the following calendar year of as much as 12k. Again, this an intentionally high figure. I would rather you be pleasantly surprised than not.

For a more accurate estimate, visit the Property Tax Estimator provided by the good people at Michigan's Department of Tragedy.

For our market here in Southwest Michigan, you will most likely be plugging in either Berrien, Cass, or Van Buren for the County field. New Buffalo, Chikaming, or Lake for the Township field, and then the village or city of your choice.

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