One of the most common questions I get from buyers shopping in this area is simple: “Does it matter if the house is in the city or the township?”
The short answer is yes, and taxes are a big part of why.
The City of Belleville and Van Buren Township sit right next to each other in Wayne County. They share the same school district (Van Buren Public Schools), the same county, and the same state. But when it comes to your property tax bill, there is one key difference that buyers need to understand before they make a decision.
Here is how Michigan property taxes work. Your bill is made up of several layers: a state education tax, Wayne County taxes, your local school district taxes, and then a local unit millage, which is where the city and township part comes in. That last layer is where Belleville and Van Buren Township go their separate ways.
The City of Belleville levies a city operating millage. As a city, Belleville provides its own municipal services, things like city administration and infrastructure, and that cost is built into the local millage rate. Van Buren Township levies a township millage instead. Historically, townships tend to carry a lower operating millage than cities because the service structure is different.
What makes this area interesting is that the total millage rates between the two communities are closer than most buyers expect. Both are actually quite competitive within Wayne County, and Van Buren Township has long been recognized as one of the lower millage areas in the county. That said, the city does carry a slightly higher rate, and on a $250,000 home, even a few mills can translate to a few hundred dollars per year.
One thing that helps all homeowners in both areas is the Principal Residence Exemption, commonly called the PRE or homestead exemption. If the home is your primary residence, you are exempt from 18 mills of school operating tax. That exemption applies equally whether you are in the city or the township, so it is worth making sure it is on file when you close on a home.
The clearest way to compare two specific properties is to look at the taxable value on each one and run it through the Michigan Treasury’s Property Tax Estimator at michigan.gov. You can pull exact millage rates by local unit, which makes it easy to do a side-by-side comparison before you make an offer.
If you are weighing a home in the City of Belleville against one in Van Buren Township, I am happy to pull the numbers for you so you can see the actual annual difference. It is one of those things that is worth knowing upfront, not as a dealbreaker, but as part of making a fully informed decision.
Reach out anytime and we can walk through it together.
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