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Oakland County, Michigan

Mortgage Broker in Highland, MI

Buying or refinancing in Highland Township, on Duck Lake, near Highland Station or at a Milford address on the township's south side? Samantha prices your loan with multiple wholesale lenders and reads the parcel for what a Highland house tends to need: a septic evaluation, a well test or a township water account, and any lake board assessment.

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Buying a home in Highland

Highland Township is about 15 miles west of the Waterford office by road, where Oakland County starts to feel rural. Highland Recreation Area covers nearly 6,000 acres of it, Duck Lake sits on the east side among a scatter of smaller lakes, and the housing runs to acreage rather than subdivisions. Buyers here are usually trading density for land, and they are almost always financing a property with a well, a septic field, or both.

By the numbers

Highland housing and mortgage snapshot

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

$481,000

Typical home value, from the market research on this page

+47%

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

2

Residential ZIP codes: 48356, 48357

What financing looks like in Highland

Redfin's median sale ran about $407,000 in ZIP 48356 and about $549,000 in 48357 for the three months to September 2026, and both ZIP codes sit entirely inside Highland Township. Census estimates from 2020 to 2024 put township owners' median value near $330,800, with a quarter of owners below about $214,500 and a quarter above about $478,900. That puts most purchases in conventional loans well inside the 2026 conforming limit of $832,750. FHA fits when the loan stays within the 2026 Oakland County one-unit limit of $541,287, a cap on the loan rather than the price, and VA serves eligible veterans and service members. A jumbo loan comes in only when the amount borrowed passes the conforming limit.

What sets a Highland loan apart is underground. The township has no sanitary sewer system, its draft master plan says, so every house runs on its own septic system. Drinking water comes from a private well or from the township system the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner runs on eight wells, plus a separate two-well system for the White Eagle subdivision. Underwriters and appraisers ask which one a house has, and on a private well the testing falls to the owner: the county health division suggests a bacteria, nitrate and nitrite sample every year.

About 868 of the township's 7,820 homes are manufactured homes in the Census count, most of them at Highland Greens Estates and near Seaver Road. One on a leased site is usually titled and financed as personal property, which CFPB research links to costlier loans than a mortgage, so ask early how the home is titled. For a first purchase, MSHDA's MI Home Loan caps the sales price at $566,355, above the latest median in either Highland ZIP code, and can pair with the $10,000 MI 10K loan. MI 10K is repaid when you sell, refinance or pay off the first mortgage, or when you move out, and both programs cap household income.

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About one Highland Township home in nine carries a Milford 48380 address. Highland Township, not Milford, assesses it and sets its taxes.

Sub-markets

Highland housing market by ZIP code

Four ZIP codes reach into Highland Township. 48356 and 48357 lie wholly inside it and, by the 2020 Census, hold all but about one home in eight. The southwest corner around New Venice and Seaver Road, about 860 homes, has Milford 48380 addresses, and about 100 homes on the northwest edge have Holly 48442 addresses. Highland Township assesses and taxes every one of them. Redfin's sale figures below cover the three months to September 2026.

ZIP 48356, near $407,000

The east side of the township, about 41% of its land and 3,504 homes in 2020: Seven Harbors on White Lake, Duck Lake, Harvey and Alderman lakes and the homes along Pettibone Lake Road beside the Highland Recreation Area. Census owner median $336,800, typical build year 1975, with about one household in twelve renting. Homes sold in about 23 days, against 28 a year earlier, and its median sale climbed 25.2% from a year before. Named areas: Seven Harbors and the White Lake shore, Duck Lake and Duck Lake Park, Axford Acres and Huntwood Place.

ZIP 48357, near $549,000

The west and center, about 39% of the land and 3,428 homes in 2020: Highland Station and the township offices, Prestwick Village, Highland Greens Estates, Hickory Ridge and Clyde. Census owner median $360,700, typical build year 1985, and 572 manufactured homes, about one home in six. Homes took about 27 days to sell, against 20 a year earlier, and its median sale climbed 14.9% from a year before. Named areas: Township offices and Prestwick Village, Highland Greens Estates, Timber Ridge and Cobblestone.

Where to look

Highland neighborhoods

Seven Harbors and the White Lake shore

The township's east edge on White Lake, whose western half lies in Highland Township, with Seven Harbors along the shore and streets reaching north toward Duck Lake. White Lake has a state-designated lake improvement board and a court-set normal level. Owners in the tract put the median home near $348,400, typical build year 1973, and about 112 of its 887 households rent.

Duck Lake and Duck Lake Park

Duck Lake, about 290 acres of water on the Census Bureau's map, with Duck Lake Park and Highland Hills Drive on its north shore. The lake has its own improvement board and a court-set normal level. This block group holds the township's oldest housing by median, built around 1962, with owner estimates near $375,100 and a wide margin.

Axford Acres and Huntwood Place

West and south of Duck Lake: Axford Acres off Ramada Drive and Huntwood Place off Foxgrove Drive, every home detached in both block groups. Owners put the median near $342,700 around Axford Acres, where the typical house dates to 1976, and near $279,700 around Huntwood Place, typical build year 1980.

Harvey and Alderman lakes

North of M-59 around Harvey Lake Heights and Alderman Lake, close to M-59 and Harvey Lake Road, where the first Village of Highland, later called Spring Mills, ran a grist mill and cider mill on Pettibone Creek. A small block group of about 236 homes, all detached, with owner estimates near $336,400 (a wide margin) and a typical build year of 1978.

Oak Heights and Upper Pettibone Lake

North of Harvey Lake, the Oak Heights streets and the shores of Upper Pettibone, Leonard, Huff and Dunleavy lakes. All 609 homes in the block group's Census count are detached, owners put the median near $305,300 and the typical build year is 1979. A handful of streets on its west side carry 48357 addresses.

Pettibone Lake Road and the Recreation Area

The southeast quarter, much of it state land in the Highland Recreation Area, including the 721-acre Haven Hill natural area south of M-59 and east of Duck Lake Road. About 456 homes in 2020 spread across roughly 7 square miles, along Pettibone Lake Road and around Lower Pettibone and Moore lakes, split between 48356 and 48357. Owner median near $383,800, typical build year 1975.

Township offices and Prestwick Village

Around the township offices on North John Street, by the downtown at M-59 and Milford Road and the railroad-era Highland Station, and south to Prestwick Village off Gleneagles. Of the block group's 861 homes, 74 are attached and 67 are apartments in larger buildings, and renters make up about a quarter of households. Owner median near $480,400, typical build year 1993.

Highland Greens Estates

North of the downtown off Mead Drive and Duncan Court. In this block group 435 of 532 homes are manufactured homes, so the Census owner median of about $22,700 reflects the homes far more than any land, and the typical build year is 1985. The township's draft master plan says its mobile home parks have changed hands since 2020 and seen reinvestment.

Timber Ridge and Cobblestone

West of the downtown, the Timber Ridge streets off Pine Bluffs Court and the Cobblestone streets off Overbrook. By median build year, 2006, the township's newest block group. Owners put the median near $500,000, a figure with a wide margin of about $109,000 either way, and 86 of its 351 homes are manufactured homes.

Hickory Ridge and Dunham Lake

The west side along Hickory Ridge Road toward the Livingston County line, around Dunham and Hickory Ridge lakes and up to the old Hickory Ridge crossroads. Every one of the block group's 525 households owns its home, by the Census estimate, with a median value near $432,100 and a typical build year of 1984. The draft master plan places most of the township's remaining farmland in this northwest quadrant.

Clyde and the north lakes

The north end, where the railroad once made a Village of Clyde: Woodruff, Charlick and Tomahawk lakes off Intervale Drive, and Kellogg, Taggett, Murray and Highland lakes to the west, all seven with lake improvement boards. Up here the water drains toward the Shiawassee River, not the Huron, and about 100 homes on the edge have Holly 48442 addresses. Owner medians near $279,300 by Clyde and $365,000 to the west, built around 1977 and 1983.

New Venice and Seaver Road

The southwest corner, where homes carry Milford 48380 addresses but pay Highland Township taxes: New Venice off North Street by Rowe Lake, and the streets off Seaver Road and Stone Barn Road. In the Seaver Road block group 296 of 511 homes are manufactured homes, typical build year 2003. New Venice's block group dates to about 1978, owner estimates near $343,800, both with wide margins.

Lakes, lake boards and state land

The township counts more than twenty-five lakes, and Oakland County's lake improvement board list names ten of them in Highland: Charlick, Duck, Gourd, Highland, Kellogg, Murray, Taggett, Tomahawk, White and Woodruff. A board can take on weed control and similar work for a whole lake. Duck and White lakes are also on the Water Resources Commissioner's list of lakes with a court-set normal level, where the owners who benefit pay to build, run and keep up the control structure through a special assessment district. Ask for both sets of notices before you write an offer on a lake house.

For any house, on a lake or not, look the address up on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center before you write an offer. In a high-risk zone the lender requires flood insurance, so the quote belongs in the budget from the start.

A large share of the township will not be built on. Oakland County's 2021 land use count, in the township's draft master plan, puts about 5,216 of its 23,156 acres in recreation and conservation use, much of it the Highland Recreation Area, which joins the old Dodge Brothers State Park No. 10 to part of Edsel Ford's Haven Hill estate. The 721-acre Haven Hill natural area lies inside it, and the DNR's park page lists the Teeple Lake beach, the Dodge No. 10 pavilion and Bass Lake Lodge on Pettibone Lake Road.

Talk with SamanthaBuying a waterfront home

On a Highland lake, two boards may bill the parcel: one for the water, one for its level.

Schools and commute

Schools

Huron Valley Schools covers all of Highland Township on the Census Bureau's school district map, and Michigan Treasury's 2025 millage table lists it as the only district in the township, so no Highland Township parcel moves between district tax rates. That is not true next door: White Lake Township's parcels fall in five districts plus a transfer area, and Milford Township's in Huron Valley and South Lyon. Treasury lists Huron Valley in Commerce, Milford and White Lake townships, the Village of Milford and Livingston County's Brighton Township too, so the district name alone does not say which township taxes a home. The Highland Township Public Library and the Huron Valley Council for the Arts sit in the downtown at M-59 and Milford Road.

Commute

M-59 (Highland Road) crosses the township from east to west and meets Milford Road at the downtown. From the township offices on North John Street, the Village of Milford's center is about 4 miles, the gate of GM's Milford Proving Ground on General Motors Road about 7, Brighton about 17, the Oakland County campus in Pontiac about 16 and Novi's civic center about 18: roughly 8, 11, 24, 26 and 28 minutes outside rush hour. Ann Arbor is about 33 miles, Detroit Metro Airport about 44 and downtown Detroit about 45, an hour or a little more. GM says the proving ground covers more than 4,000 acres and employs more than 4,200 people. Township residents average about a 35 minute commute, and about 16% work from home (Census Reporter).

Michigan property taxes

Highland 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 Highland Township, our 2026 Uncapping Study found taxable value typically rises about 47% the year after a sale. On a $475,000 home, near the typical Highland value, the first-year tax goes up roughly $2,470 at the Huron Valley schools rate. We build your payment on that post-sale number.

Looking at a Highland 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

County alone does not tell you much. We would never say you are in a particular county so here are your taxes. It does not work like that. We need the actual property.

One school district, many neighbors

Highland's tax rate beside the townships around it

Michigan Treasury's 2025 total homestead millage, with the typical rise in taxable value the year after a sale from our 2026 Uncapping Study. Each mill adds $100 a year of tax per $100,000 of taxable value.

Highland Township: 32.72 mills

One rate for the whole township, every parcel in Huron Valley Schools, Milford and Holly addresses included. Taxable value typically rises about 47% the year after a sale.

Highland second home or rental: 50.45 mills

Without the Principal Residence Exemption, a Highland parcel pays about $1,772 more a year for every $100,000 of taxable value.

Milford Township, Huron Valley: 34.24 mills

South of Highland, where the typical rise after a sale is about 33%. Inside the Village of Milford the homestead total is 41.66 mills.

Milford mortgage guide

White Lake Township, Huron Valley: 34.58 mills

East across White Lake, with five school districts and a transfer area on its rolls and a typical rise of about 42% after a sale.

White Lake mortgage guide

Commerce Township, Huron Valley: 33.22 mills

Southeast, split between Huron Valley and Walled Lake schools, where taxable value typically climbs about 38% after a sale.

Commerce Township mortgage guide

Rose Township, Holly schools: 29.55 mills

North of Highland, where taxable value typically jumps about 50% the year after a sale, so the lower rate can still bring a large first-year change.

Local resources

Check Highland records yourself

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

Before you write an offer

Five things to settle on a Highland house

All five are quick to answer before an offer and slow to fix after one.

  • The septic file. With no public sewer anywhere in the township, every house has a system. The county septic program keeps permits and inspections for 18 years and releases them on request (248-858-1312), so read the file and have the system evaluated during your inspection period.
  • The water source. A township account comes from the Water Resources Commissioner, whose rate explainer on the township site shows the quarterly base charge up $70. A private well needs your own test: bacteria, nitrate and nitrite are the county's yearly suggestion, and iron is common in this groundwater.
  • Lake notices. Ten Highland lakes have improvement boards and two have court-set levels. Ask what has been levied and what is planned, and settle in the purchase agreement who pays an assessment already confirmed.
  • The taxing unit behind the address. A Milford 48380 or Holly 48442 address in this corner of the county can still be a Highland Township parcel. The township assessing office (248-887-3791 ext. 3) or the parcel record answers it in a minute.
  • How a manufactured home is titled. Real property or personal property decides which loans are open to it, and the answer can differ between a home on its own land and one in a community.

What our clients say

5.0 on Google across 128 reviews

★★★★★
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
★★★★★
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
Read all reviews on Google

Individual experiences. Results vary.

Highland mortgage questions

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

Is every home with a Highland, MI address in Highland Township?

Yes for 48356 and 48357: both ZIP codes lie wholly inside the township. The reverse is not true. In the 2020 Census about 862 Highland Township homes in the southwest corner had Milford 48380 addresses and about 103 on the northwest edge had Holly 48442 addresses, and Highland Township assesses all of them. That matters for the bill: in 2025 the township’s homestead total was 32.72 mills, against 34.24 in Milford Township and 41.66 in the Village of Milford. Before I put a payment in front of you, I confirm on the parcel record which unit taxes it.

Redfin’s median sale for the three months to September 2026 was about $407,000 in 48356, 25.2% above the same months of 2025 at about 23 days to sell, and about $549,000 in 48357, 14.9% higher at about 27 days. Small ZIP codes swing quarter to quarter, so treat those as direction rather than a price list. The Census median of about $330,800 is what owners estimated between 2020 and 2024.

No. The township’s draft master plan says it has no sanitary sewer system, so every home relies on a septic system, and residents were split on extending sewers when the township asked during the plan’s update. Oakland County permits new and repaired systems and keeps permits and inspections for 18 years, so ask the Health Division at 248-858-1312 for the house’s file, and put a septic evaluation inside your inspection period.

A township account shows up as a quarterly water bill from the county, so request one from the seller or call the Water Resources Commissioner at 248-858-1066. The township system runs on eight wells and the White Eagle subdivision has its own two-well system. Its quarterly base charge rose by $70: a home using 1,500 cubic feet or less a quarter that paid $115 now pays about $185, and use above that costs $70 per 1,000 cubic feet instead of $35. On a private well, the water test is yours to arrange.

Huron Valley Schools, everywhere in the township. Michigan Treasury’s 2025 total for a principal residence in the township is 32.72 mills, and 50.45 for a second home or rental, which pays the school operating mills a homestead is spared. On $100,000 of taxable value that difference is about $1,772 a year, so file the Principal Residence Exemption as soon as you move in.

Possibly two separate charges. Ten Highland lakes, including Duck, White, Woodruff and Kellogg, have a state-designated lake improvement board, which oversees work such as aquatic weed control. Duck and White lakes also have a court-set normal level, maintained through a special assessment district of the owners who benefit, backlot owners with lake access included. Ask the seller for the latest notices from both, and we put the amounts into your monthly number with the taxes and insurance.

A lender requires it when any part of the house falls inside FEMA’s high-risk zone, and some ask for it beyond that line. Check the address on the federal flood map while you are still comparing houses, and get a quote early for one that touches the zone.

Highland Township contracts its assessing to WCA Assessing, at the township offices, 205 N John St, 248-887-3791 ext. 3. File the Property Transfer Affidavit within 45 days of the transfer to avoid a penalty, and the Principal Residence Exemption, which lowers the summer bill. The office takes both by email, mail or in person.

Communities near Highland

Oakland County overview

Guides for Highland buyers

Browse the Learn Center

Loan options

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Talk with a local mortgage expert

Tell Samantha what you are trying to do in Highland 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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