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Oakland County, Michigan

Mortgage Broker in Independence Township, MI

Buying or refinancing in Independence Township, on Deer Lake, near Pine Knob or anywhere with a Clarkston address? Samantha shops your loan across multiple wholesale lenders and checks the parcel first: the township it is really in, its school district, and whether it runs on a well and septic system.

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Buying a home in Independence Township

Independence Township is a charter township in northern Oakland County, home to about 37,600 residents in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate. Organized in 1834 and named for Independence Township in New Jersey, where early settlers came from, it surrounds the City of the Village of Clarkston, which has governed itself since 1992. Independence Township is home to the Pine Knob Music Theatre and the Pine Knob ski area, on a 1,221-foot hill, and its many lakes first drew vacationers out of Detroit in the 1800s. The median household income in Independence Township is near $114,700.

By the numbers

Independence Township housing and mortgage snapshot

Values move. Treat these as orientation and let us pull current figures for the address you are considering.

$382,000

Typical home value, from the market research on this page

+35%

Typical rise in taxable value the year after a home sells, 2026 Uncapping Study

1.12%

Property tax current owners pay, as a share of value. A buyer's bill can reset higher the year after a sale

2

Residential ZIP codes: 48346, 48348

What financing looks like in Independence Township

The median sale ran about $389,000 in ZIP 48346 and $544,000 in 48348 in Redfin's figures for the three months to September 2026, and Census estimates put the middle half of Independence Township's owner-occupied homes between about $273,000 and $500,000. So most purchases here are conventional loans inside the 2026 conforming limit of $832,750. FHA works as long as the loan stays within the 2026 Oakland County one-unit limit of $541,287, which caps the loan, not the price, and VA is there for eligible veterans and service members. A jumbo loan comes in only when the amount borrowed is above the conforming limit.

The land is what sets a loan here apart. The township's own 2023 land-use count puts about 29% of its acres in rural residential use and another 8% in estate lots, and homes beyond the township's water and sewer lines rely on a private well, a septic system or both; Oakland County leaves testing the well to its owner. Lake homes bring their own line items, from a lake improvement assessment on the tax bill to flood insurance on parts of the shoreline. And most of the township's 738 manufactured homes, by the Census count, stand in communities near Maybee and Clintonville roads: one on a leased lot is usually financed as personal property, which CFPB research shows typically carries a higher interest rate than a mortgage, so ask early how the home is titled.

First-time buyers can look at MSHDA's MI Home Loan, whose $566,355 cap on the sales price is above the recent median sale in both ZIP codes, paired with the $10,000 MI 10K down payment loan, which is repaid when you sell, refinance, pay off the mortgage or stop living in the home. Household income limits apply, so we look at those before anything else.

Talk with SamanthaCompare loan options

In Independence Township the loan limit is rarely what decides the payment. The school district line, a lake assessment and a septic system usually are.

The market

The Independence Township housing market

The typical home value in Independence Township is near $381,700, the median for owner-occupied homes in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which counts about 11,100 owner-occupied homes here. The median year built is 1986, and the stock runs from lakefront and lake-access homes to subdivisions of colonials on rolling, wooded lots. Homeowners pay a median of about $4,290 a year in property taxes, an effective property tax rate of about 1.12% of the median value.

By ZIP code

Two Clarkston ZIP codes, shared with the neighbors

The Postal Service lists Clarkston as the default city for both ZIP codes that serve the township, and each runs well past the township line, so a Clarkston address can sit in Independence, Springfield, Brandon, Orion or Groveland Township or in the City of the Village of Clarkston. Land shares are measured on the Census Bureau's 2020 ZIP and township boundaries. Redfin's sale figures, for the three months to September 2026, cover each whole ZIP code.

ZIP 48346, south and west, near $389,000

About a third of the township's land: Deer Lake, the lakes along Dixie Highway, the Woodhull Lake and Lake Oakland shores, Sashabaw Road at I-75 and the township offices. Only about two thirds of the ZIP lies in Independence; most of the rest is Springfield Township, plus the City of the Village of Clarkston. Census owner median $325,400, typical build year 1982, with about three households in ten renting. Homes took about 35 days to sell, against 23 a year earlier.

ZIP 48348, north and east, near $544,000

About two thirds of the township's land: Independence Oaks, Walters Lake, Pine Knob and the Lake Orion schools corner. About 69% of the ZIP is in Independence, a fifth in Springfield Township and the rest in Brandon, Orion and Groveland townships. Census owner median $444,500, typical build year 1991, with more than nine households in ten owning. Homes sold in about 14 days, and the median sale was up 8.9% on a year earlier.

Where to look

Independence Township neighborhoods

Deer Lake

The 137-acre lake on the west side of the village toward Dixie Highway, as deep as 63 feet. The township runs Deer Lake Beach on White Lake Road, though the beach itself lies inside the City of the Village of Clarkston. Clarkston Community Schools. In the block group that holds the township side of the lake, owners put the median home near $539,000, with a typical build year of 1985.

Greens, Van Norman and Townsend lakes

The southwest corner along Dixie Highway and Andersonville Road, where the Clinton River runs through Greens, Lester and Van Norman lakes and the township's Bay Court Park keeps a small beach on Greens Lake. The streets around Van Norman and Townsend lakes, up onto Waterford Hill, hold nearly all of the township's Waterford School District territory; on Dixie Highway the line falls between about the 5900 and 6200 blocks. Tract owner values near $372,000, typical build year 1980, with about a quarter of the homes in buildings of five or more units.

Woodhull Lake and Lake Oakland shores

Along the Waterford Township line, the township takes in the north shores of Woodhull Lake and Lake Oakland, two Clinton River lakes it shares with Waterford. The oldest housing in the township: around Woodhull Lake, off Waterford and Drayton roads, the tract's typical home dates to 1957, with owner values near $272,000. On Lake Oakland's north shore off Sashabaw and Meyers roads, the block group's typical home dates to 1971, near $332,000. Clarkston schools almost throughout.

Sashabaw Road at I-75

The township's commercial strip, from exit 89 south along the Sashabaw Road boulevard into the southeast corner the first settlers called the Sashabaw Plains, a name kept by the township park on Maybee Road. Between Waldon and Maybee roads stand about 800 homes in buildings of five or more units, most of them rented, and south of Maybee toward Clintonville Road the township's manufactured home communities. The tract's owner median, near $196,000, reflects that mix; typical build year 1990.

Pine Knob and Oakhurst

The Pine Knob hill, from Waldon Road north to Clarkston Road between Sashabaw and Pine Knob roads, with its ski area and music theatre, plus Flemings Lake, the private Oakhurst Golf and Country Club to the east and Morgan Lake to the southeast. By tract, the township's youngest housing: typical build year 1999, owners putting the middle half between about $407,000 and $679,000. Near Pine Knob and Waldon roads more than a quarter of the homes are attached.

Walters Lake and Thendara

The northeast, between Sashabaw Road and the Orion Township line, around 77-acre Walters Lake, 76 feet deep, and Round Lake. The Thendara streets beside Walters Lake have township districts for winter road care on their public and private roads, and the lake has an improvement assessment through 2028. Nearly every home in the tract is detached and owner-occupied, owner values near $388,000, typical build year 1984. The far northeast corner around Klais Road is in Lake Orion Community Schools.

Independence Oaks and the north end

North of the village and I-75, along M-15 (Ortonville Road) and Sashabaw Road: Oakland County's 1,286-acre Independence Oaks County Park around 68-acre Crooked Lake, and the township's 158-acre Clintonwood Park on Clarkston Road, which backs onto it. The tract covers about a third of the township's land, almost all of it detached homes, with owner values near $463,000 and a typical build year of 1988. Near Upper Bushman Lake, nearly a quarter of one block group lies in FEMA's high-risk flood zone.

Waldon Road and the township campus

Between the village and I-75, along Waldon, Maybee and Clarkston roads: the township offices on Waldon Center Drive and Clarkston High School on Flemings Lake Road. Sheringham Woods, Chestnut Hill Farms and Spring Lake North, between Waldon and Maybee roads, each received a township road repaving assessment in 2025. Tract owner values near $348,000, typical build year 1986, with the streets nearest the village dating to the early 1960s.

Owning on one of the township's lakes

More than thirty named lakes lie in the township, many strung along the Clinton River, which rises in the wetlands of Independence and the townships beside it. Some, Walters Lake and Lake Oakland among them, carry a lake improvement special assessment on the tax bill. On Walters Lake, the 2024 to 2028 roll assesses a lakefront home $390 for 2024, rising to $442 by 2028, and about 330 off-lake homes in the district $75 rising to $85. The Lake Oakland roll the township posts lists 124 Independence parcels, most at $184 and the rest at $46. Ask for the current roll, from the township's special assessment page, before you write an offer, because it is billed with the taxes and belongs in the monthly number.

About 6% of the township's land outside the lakes falls inside FEMA's high-risk flood zone, mostly beside the Clinton River and on the shores of lakes such as Upper Bushman, Greens, Deer and Townsend. Most mortgages on a home in that zone require flood insurance, so check the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center while you are still deciding.

Shoreline work has its own rules. Michigan requires a state permit to build, enlarge or remove a structure on a lake's bottomland, the area below the ordinary high-water mark, which covers a new seawall (MCL 324.30102). A seasonal dock for private use that comes out at the end of the boating season is exempt, as long as it does not get in the way of others using the lake (MCL 324.30103). If a seawall or permanent dock looks new, ask the seller for its permit.

Talk with SamanthaBuying a waterfront home

On an Independence Township lake, read the assessment roll and the flood map along with the listing.

Schools and commute

Schools

Clarkston Community Schools covers about 93% of Independence Township's land by the Census Bureau's school district boundaries, and Clarkston High School stands in the township on Flemings Lake Road. Two corners belong to other districts, as the township's school page notes: the northeast around Klais and Eston roads, about 5% of the land, to Lake Orion Community Schools, and the southwest by Van Norman and Townsend lakes, about 2%, to Waterford School District. The Clarkston district also reaches past the township into the City of the Village of Clarkston and parts of Springfield, Orion, Waterford and White Lake townships, so the district name alone does not tell you the township. Millage differs by district and by township, so we read both off the parcel record.

Commute

I-75 crosses the middle of Independence Township, with exit 89 at Sashabaw Road and exit 91 at M-15, which runs north through the village as Main Street and becomes Ortonville Road; Dixie Highway (US-24) cuts across the southwest corner. From the township offices on Waldon Center Drive, the Oakland County government campus in Pontiac is about 8 miles away, the Stellantis North America headquarters and technology center in Auburn Hills about 12, the Big Beaver corridor in Troy about 19, downtown Flint about 30 and downtown Detroit about 39: roughly 15, 16, 26, 34 and 45 minutes outside rush hour. Detroit Metro Airport is about 56 miles, a little over an hour. The township is a job center of its own, too: the profile page on its website counts about 17,700 jobs inside the township in 2020, led by hospitality, health care and financial services. Residents average about a 29 minute commute, and about 18% work from home (Census Reporter).

Michigan property taxes

Independence Township property taxes after you buy

The year after a Michigan home sells, its taxable value resets to half of the assessor's market value, so the seller's tax bill is not your tax bill.

In Independence Township, our 2026 Uncapping Study found taxable value typically rises about 35% the year after a sale. On a $375,000 home, near the typical Independence Township value, that is roughly $1,590 more in first-year tax at the local median homestead millage. We build your payment on that post-sale number.

Looking at an Independence Township address? Our Michigan property tax calculator finds that property's published 2025 millage and works out the tax to plan for after you buy.

How Michigan taxable value works

In Samantha's words

In Michigan, don't just look at the current tax bill. Understand what could happen after ownership changes.

One mailing city, several tax rates

Same Clarkston address, different tax bill

Michigan Treasury's 2025 total homestead millage for the taxing units and school districts a Clarkston address can fall in, with the typical rise in taxable value the year after a sale from our 2026 Uncapping Study. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value.

Independence, Clarkston schools: 32.73 mills

About 93% of the township's land. Across the township, taxable value typically rises about 35% the year after a sale.

Independence, Lake Orion schools: 35.08 mills

The northeast corner around Klais Road, about 5% of the land: about $236 more a year for every $100,000 of taxable value.

Independence, Waterford schools: 32.48 mills

The southwest corner by Van Norman and Townsend lakes, about 2% of the land.

No homestead exemption: 50.73 mills

A second home or rental in the Clarkston schools part pays the 18 school operating mills a principal residence is spared.

City of the Village of Clarkston: 36.26 mills

A separate city of about half a square mile inside the township and ZIP 48346, where taxable value typically climbs about 55% after a sale.

Clarkston mortgage guide

Springfield Township, Clarkston schools: 31.65 mills

West of the township and sharing both Clarkston ZIP codes; there the typical climb after a sale is about 41%.

Local resources

Check Independence Township records yourself

The official offices behind the tax and school details on this page.

Before you write an offer

Four Independence Township checks before an offer

Each of these is easier to settle while you are still deciding than once you are under contract.

  • The township and the district. A Clarkston address can belong to five townships or the city, and inside Independence to one of three school districts. On Dixie Highway alone the Waterford schools line falls between about the 5900 and 6200 blocks. The parcel record names both.
  • The well and the septic system.Oakland County's septic program permits new and repaired systems and keeps permits and inspections for 18 years, but it lists no inspection at sale, so order your own evaluation. Testing a private well falls to its owner, and the county health division suggests bacteria and nitrate every year and arsenic every few years.
  • Special assessments. The township's 2025 road repaving districts run ten years: about $339 a year in Sheringham Woods, $844 in Spring Lake North and $1,785 in Chestnut Hill Farms. Thendara has winter road maintenance districts, and Walters Lake and Lake Oakland have lake improvement assessments. Ask what is still owed and settle in the purchase agreement who pays it.
  • Trash service. Waste hauling is not in the township's taxes, per its millage page: residents contract with a licensed hauler or go through their association, so budget it as its own bill.

What our clients say

5.0 on Google across 128 reviews

★★★★★
Want to shout out Samantha for the expert guidance, made my first-time homebuyer experience seamless! It exceeded expectations and was a stress free process throughout. Grateful for all your help and loving my new home in Bloomfield Hills!
MichaelJuly 2026
★★★★★
Samantha Shelton is amazing!! She helped me get into my first home in Ferndale. The closing process was easy I was able to take care of everything without taking a day off of work. Being a first time homebuyer was stressful but she provided clear communication and true experience guidance throughout the entire process
Jeffery HolleyFebruary 2026
★★★★★
Can’t say enough great things about Samantha and her team at Align Lending! Highly recommend
Justin BartonJune 2024
★★★★★
As a first-time homebuyer in Ferndale, I was unsure of some things. Samantha was awesome. She was extremely helpful and made sure I understood every part of the process.
Peter RosaAugust 2026
Read all reviews on Google

Individual experiences. Results vary.

Independence Township mortgage questions

If yours is not here, ask it on the call. There are no dumb questions.

Is a Clarkston, MI address in Independence Township?

Often, but not always. The Postal Service lists Clarkston as the default city for 48346 and 48348 and also accepts Independence, yet both ZIP codes run past the township: about a third of 48346 is Springfield Township, and 48348 also reaches into Springfield, Brandon, Orion and Groveland townships. The City of the Village of Clarkston, inside the township, is a separate city with its own millage. I check the taxing unit on the parcel before I build your payment.

It splits by ZIP code. Redfin’s median sale for the three months to September 2026 was about $389,000 in 48346, down 3.4% on a year earlier, and about $544,000 in 48348, up 8.9%, and both figures include Springfield Township’s share of each ZIP. The Census median of about $381,700 is what township owners estimated between 2020 and 2024, with the middle half running from about $273,000 to $500,000.

Usually Clarkston Community Schools, on about 93% of the township’s land. The northeast corner around Klais Road is in Lake Orion Community Schools, and the southwest corner by Van Norman and Townsend lakes is in Waterford School District. Michigan Treasury’s 2025 homestead totals in the township were 32.73 mills with Clarkston, 35.08 with Lake Orion and 32.48 with Waterford, so the Lake Orion part pays about $236 more a year for every $100,000 of taxable value.

Some do: wherever the township’s water and sewer lines do not reach, a home relies on its own well, septic system or both, so ask which this one has. Oakland County leaves well testing to the owner and recommends a bacteria and nitrate test every year, and its septic rules do not call for an inspection when a home sells, so I’d put a water test and a septic evaluation inside your inspection period. Ask the county for the system’s permit file too; it keeps septic permits and inspections for 18 years.

Often a lake assessment, and sometimes flood insurance. Walters Lake and Lake Oakland have improvement assessments billed with the property taxes: on Walters Lake a lakefront home was assessed $390 for 2024, rising each year to $442 in 2028, and off-lake homes in the district $75 rising to $85. Lake Oakland’s roll lists most township parcels at $184. If the home is in FEMA’s high-risk zone, most loans also require a flood policy, and we build both into your monthly number.

Only if the home is in FEMA’s high-risk zone or your lender asks for it. About 6% of the township’s land outside the lakes is in that zone, mostly beside the Clinton River and the lakes it runs through, and the north end around Independence Oaks holds about half of it. Pull the address up on FEMA’s flood map before you make an offer, and get a quote early if any part of the house sits in the zone.

No. The township’s millage page says waste hauling is the resident’s responsibility, through a private contract or a homeowners association, so it arrives as its own bill, and the clerk’s office posts the list of licensed haulers. When we put your monthly budget together, the hauler’s charge goes in beside the taxes, the insurance and any lake or road assessment.

Two forms, usually handed over at closing: the Property Transfer Affidavit and the Principal Residence Exemption affidavit. If you file them in person, the office will also ask you for a Real Property Statement and to schedule a visit from its appraiser to see the house’s condition at the sale, which you have the right to refuse. File the exemption as soon as you move in: in the Clarkston schools part of the township it is the difference between 32.73 and 50.73 mills.

Communities near Independence Township

Oakland County overview

Guides for Independence Township buyers

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Tell Samantha what you are trying to do in Independence Township and she will tell you what actually matters for your situation, including whether the timing is right.

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Align Lending LLC, NMLS #2041154. Samantha Shelton, NMLS 1647301. Equal Housing Opportunity. Licensed in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Texas. Figures on this page are market research for orientation, not a quote. This page is for educational purposes only. It is not a credit decision, a preapproval, a commitment to lend, or an offer of credit.

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