Michigan Housing Values Drop as Property Taxes Rise

For the second year in a row, most Metro Detroit, Michigan mortgage holders are facing higher tax assessments despite a continuing drop in the market value of their homes.

That means their property tax bills likely will rise as well, though they can’t exceed the current 3.7 percent rate of inflation set by the state.

Local officials say they expect annual assessment notices - due in mailboxes around the first week of March - will spark a higher-than-usual number of disgruntled property owners lining up for appeals before local assessment review boards.

Among them will likely be Charles Weir of Bloomfield Hills. He said he isn’t pleased about the possibility of his current $15,000 tax bill going up when the average assessed value in his area has dropped 3.62 percent, as was the case with most Detroit home prices.

“I don’t feel good about that,” he said. “I think it’s wrong. I think the taxing authorities are not being realistic or fair. The real estate taxes are not reflecting the state of the market.”

The middle class may be paying the biggest price.

Dave Heiber, Oakland County’s equalization manager, said the homes that have been hardest hit by slipping values are those in the middle range - $150,000 to $300,000. Homes that cost up to $150,000 or so are holding their values, as are those priced at $300,000 and up.

That’s one of the reasons prices in an older inner-ring community such as Oak Park are increasing when many other areas aren’t; average home appreciated by 4.34 percent last year for mortgage holders in this community.

“We’re more of a starter-home kind of market these days,” said Oak Park City Assessor Dean Bush. “And there’s definitely still a market for that.”

Homeowners upset by hike
In Ray Township within the Michigan housing market, the average home assessment increased by more than 7 percent.

Dawn Bettcher, a mother from Ray Township, said she believed homes in her town were being overvalued given the moribund housing market. She cringed over her taxes jumping up again this year.

“If our house was worth that, I wouldn’t mind, but I don’t think we could get that if we wanted to sell,” she said.

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