Kent County, Michigan

Mortgage Broker in Caledonia Township, MI

Village lot or township acreage, Lake Michigan water or a private well: we work out your Caledonia Township payment from the parcel's own tax rate and utilities, and one Michigan broker shops the loan across multiple wholesale lenders.

Start my application Talk with Samantha

No credit pull to talk
Licensed loan originator, NMLS 1647301
5.0 on Google, 128 reviews

Buying a home in Caledonia Township

Caledonia Township is a charter township in Kent County about 10 miles southeast of Grand Rapids, home to about 17,000 residents in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate, up from about 12,300 in 2010. Organized in 1838, Caledonia Township has the Thornapple River running north through its center. The median household income in Caledonia Township is near $111,400.

By the numbers

Caledonia Township housing and mortgage snapshot

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

$383,000

Typical home value, from the market research on this page

+37%

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

1.04%

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: 49316, 49302

What financing looks like in Caledonia Township

The township assessor's 2026 sales book lists 538 arm's-length sales of houses and condos from April 2023 through December 2025 with a median of $400,000, and the 222 sales recorded in 2025 had a median near $415,000. Newer figures run higher but reach past the township line: Redfin's median for ZIP 49316, which also takes in much of Gaines Township, was about $472,000 over July to September 2026, about 7% above a year earlier, and Zillow's typical home value for the Caledonia area stood near $468,000 in September 2026. All of them sit far under the 2026 conforming limit of $832,750, and the 2025 sales median is under Kent County's 2026 FHA limit of $541,287, so price alone seldom rules a program out here. With the township's Census median value below MSHDA's $566,355 cap, first-time buyers inside the income limits can add MSHDA's MI 10K to a MI Home Loan: $10,000 for the down payment, payable once the home is sold or refinanced, when the first mortgage is paid off or when you stop living there.

Utilities shape a Caledonia Township file more than price does. Township water serves only the northwest quarter along M-37, Jasonville and the village area, and the three sewer districts cover the northwest corner, the M-37 corridor and the homes around Campau and Kettle lakes. Most houses east of the Thornapple, and rural lots on the west side, depend on their own well and septic system, so book a water test on the well and an inspection of the septic tank and field before the inspection period ends, and send us the results. Lots out there are large by plan: the township's master plan sets a 2-acre minimum for its rural preservation and farmland areas.

Two local details reach the escrow account. A home inside the Village of Caledonia carries the village levy, 7.944 mills in 2025, as a line on the township's summer bill, which goes out the first week of July and is due September 14. And FEMA's Kent County map shows a little over 4% of the land here as high-risk flood zone, chiefly along the Thornapple and Coldwater rivers and the east-side lakes, and lenders backed or supervised by the federal government make flood insurance a condition of the loan there. About two thirds of that mapped area is Zone A, drawn without a base flood elevation, so ask whether the seller has an elevation certificate and price a policy before you make the offer.

Talk with Samantha Compare loan options

Same township, same school district, different bill: in 2025 a homestead inside the Village of Caledonia paid 37.76 mills, against 29.81 just outside the village line.

The market

The Caledonia Township housing market

The typical home value in Caledonia Township is near $382,600, the median for owner-occupied homes in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which counts about 5,100 owner-occupied homes here. With a median year built of 1999, Caledonia Township's housing is mostly newer subdivisions, with some rural and river-frontage parcels. Homeowners pay a median of about $3,980 a year in property taxes, an effective property tax rate of about 1.04% of the median value.

Mailing addresses

Four mailing towns, one township

Each of the township's four ZIP codes also serves its neighbors, so the town printed on the envelope says little about which government taxes the home. We measured each ZIP's share of the land by testing points against Census boundaries. The Redfin medians below are three-month figures to September 2026 and, like the Census owner estimates for 2020 to 2024, describe the whole ZIP.

49316, Caledonia: about three fifths of the township

The village, the M-37 corridor, Jasonville and most of the west side. The township holds only about 38% of this ZIP code. Gaines Township has about 40%, Leighton Township in Allegan County about 19% and Thornapple Township in Barry County about 3%. Across the whole ZIP, Redfin's median sale came to about $472,000, roughly 7% higher than a year before, with 116 sales in September alone, and the Census owner median is $364,200 with a typical home from 2000.

49302, Alto: about a third

Most of the land east of the Thornapple, including Campau and Kettle lakes, Snow Valley and the southeast. Caledonia Township is about a quarter of this ZIP code, Bowne Township about 62%, with slices of Lowell and Cascade townships. Redfin's three-month median was near $555,000, about 16% above a year before, and the typical sale needed about 30 days on the market, up from 14. Census owners put the ZIP's median value at $400,700, with a typical build year of 1992.

49333, Middleville: a strip along 108th Street

Under 3% of the township, in the southeast corner. Part of it is Thornapple Kellogg schools and part Caledonia schools, so two 108th Street homes less than a mile apart can share a Middleville address and sit in different districts. Caledonia Township makes up only about 1% of 49333, which is mostly Thornapple, Yankee Springs and Irving townships in Barry County.

49512, Grand Rapids: the northwest tip

About 1% of the township, at Kraft Avenue and M-6, where Davenport University's campus uses a Grand Rapids address. Nearly all of 49512 is Kentwood and Cascade Township. The Grand Rapids city income tax does not follow the mailing address, since these parcels sit in Caledonia Township, not the city.

Where to look

Caledonia Township neighborhoods

Main Street and the old station grid

The village core David Kinsey platted in 1870 as Caledonia Station, a stop on the Michigan Central line: Main, Maple, Vine and Pleasant streets, Village Hall at 250 South Maple and Lakeside Park on Emmons Lake. Census figures for the whole village show owner values near $339,000, a typical build year of 1988 and about one home in five from before 1940. Village-grid sales in the assessor's book had a median of $300,000 on lots of about a fifth of an acre, and the village levy applies.

Glen Valley and Emmons Lake

North of Emmons Lake inside the village line, the Glen Valley streets of Lenter, Costner, Alanada and Glengarry, with Scotsmoor Drive just outside the line on the west and Caledonia High School on Kraft Avenue. The township's south well field sits near the water tower in Glen Valley, and homes from here south keep township well water until the Kraft Trunkline is built. Assessor sales ran near $396,000 in Glen Valley and $400,000 on Scotsmoor. The block group's Census owner median is about $356,000, typical home from 1994.

Jasonville and Cherry Valley Avenue

East of Cherry Valley Avenue (M-37) from 84th Street to 108th: Jasonville Farms, the Loggers Ridge streets, the Crossroads streets south of 100th and the stores along the highway. The housing mix runs widest here, with under half of homes detached, about 300 homes in buildings of five units or more and roughly one household in five renting. Census owner values sit near $331,000, typical home from 2006. In the assessor's book, Jasonville Farms houses sold near $430,000, Loggers Ridge near $415,000 and apartment-style condos on Jasonville Court near $184,000. Jasonville is in the north water district.

Broadmoor Avenue, Graymoor Street and the Township Hall

From Kraft Avenue east toward the Thornapple between 60th and 84th streets, around the Township Hall at 8196 Broadmoor, Kraft Lake, Lepard Park and the Thornapple Riverbend Greenspace. By Census count this is the township's newest block group, with a typical home from 2010, nine in ten homes detached and owner values near $440,000. The subdivisions around Graymoor and Crossmoor streets made up more than half of its assessor sales, at a median near $489,000. The Kraft Lake and Graymoor side is in the north water district, and lots toward the river rely on wells.

Davenport, M-6 and the northwest corner

Patterson to Kraft avenues from 60th Street down to about 76th, where M-6 meets Broadmoor Avenue. Davenport University's campus at 6191 Kraft Avenue SE uses a Grand Rapids 49512 address, as does about a sixth of this corner. The township's manufactured housing community, Country Meadows Village at 5401 76th Street, is here, and the block group counts about 300 manufactured homes, which pulls its Census owner median down to about $156,000 with a very wide margin. Assessor sales: houses on Mammoth and Bramling drives near $412,000, attached condos on Hardwood, Marindy and Wade streets near $312,000.

Kraft Avenue and the Broadmoor golf course

The southwest quarter between Patterson and Kraft avenues from 76th Street to 108th, wrapping around the village, with Golf Meadows, Green Links and Copper Corners near Broadmoor Country Club's golf course and larger lots down Duncan Lake Avenue. Every home here is a detached house and the Census counts no renters. Owner values near $468,000 carry a wide margin, about $93,000 either way, with a typical home from 2004. Assessor sales had a median near $454,000 and a median lot of about 1.3 acres.

Campau and Kettle lakes

The northeast corner from the Thornapple east to the Bowne Township line, 60th Street to about 76th, with Campau, Kettle and Buck lakes, Kettle Lake Elementary on Garbow Drive and the Campau Corner stores at 68th and Whitneyville. Nine acres in ten carry Alto 49302 addresses. Homes around the two lakes are in the Campau/Kettle Lake Sewer District, and most others rely on septic. Census owner values near $369,000 with a wide margin, typical home from 1988, assessor sales near $431,000, and lake edges put about 8% of the land in FEMA's high-risk zone.

Snow Valley and the Alaska streets

East of Alaska Avenue between about 68th and 84th streets, beside the old Thornapple mill settlement of Alaska, with subdivision streets named Anchorage, Juneau, Kodiak and Valdez, and Snow Valley Drive and Copper Heights further east. Every home is detached, owners live in about nine homes of ten, the typical home dates from 1992, with Census owner values near $435,000. Assessor sales ran higher, near $518,000, on lots of about an acre. Mostly Alto addresses, on private wells and septic.

LaBarge Dam, Two Rivers and the southeast

The largest block group, about a fifth of the township: the Thornapple from LaBarge Dam down past Two Rivers Park, near where the Coldwater River joins it, Blodgett, Barber and Riley lakes, and Whitneyville Avenue at 100th Street, where Asahel Kent settled in 1838 and opened his home as an inn on the road to Battle Creek. Lots are big: 38 of 41 assessor sales were on 2 acres or more, at a median near $562,000. Census owner values near $440,000 with a wide margin, typical home from 1993. FEMA maps about a tenth of this land as high-risk flood zone, and the far corner along 108th east of Whitneyville is in Thornapple Kellogg schools.

Thornapple River frontage

Not a block group but the assessor's own Lake River neighborhood: homes on or near the Thornapple along Thornapple River Drive, Rivershore Drive and Alaska Avenue, plus some lake lots on Campau. Its 21 arm's-length sales had a median near $683,000 on about 2.5 acres, and six sales the assessor codes as lakefront ran higher still, near $765,000. These are the lots most likely to touch FEMA's high-risk zone, so price the flood insurance along with the house.

Schools and commute

Schools

Caledonia Community Schools covers all but about one acre in 200 of the township, by our sample of Census district lines. The exception is the far southeast corner along 108th Street east of Whitneyville Avenue, which belongs to Thornapple Kellogg Schools and carries Middleville addresses. Michigan Treasury's 2025 homestead totals were 29.81 mills with Caledonia schools on township land, 31.38 with Thornapple Kellogg, about $157 a year extra per $100,000 of taxable value, and 37.76 inside the village, where the village levy is added. The district is much larger than the township: Caledonia Township holds only about 38% of its land, and Gaines, Bowne, Cascade and Leighton townships and a corner of the City of Kentwood hold nearly all the rest, so a listing that names Caledonia schools can sit in any of those places and pay that place's tax rate. The parcel record, not the district name, tells you which.

Commute

M-37 is the township's spine. It runs up the west side as Broadmoor Avenue, meets M-6, the Paul B. Henry Freeway, at an interchange just south of 60th Street on the Kentwood line, and heads south out of the village as Cherry Valley Avenue toward Middleville and Hastings. From the Township Hall at 8196 Broadmoor, free-flow drive times run about 8 minutes to the airport terminal at Gerald R. Ford International, 11 to Kentwood City Hall or the Gaines Marketplace stores, 13 to Middleville, 24 to downtown Grand Rapids (about 13 miles in a straight line and 18 by road), 28 to downtown Hastings, 43 to Holland and just under an hour to downtown Kalamazoo. Davenport University's campus sits inside the township at 6191 Kraft Avenue SE. The Paul Henry Thornapple Trail follows the old Grand River Valley Railroad bed through the village, and its paved Kent County stretch runs from Kentwood to 108th Street. Census figures put the average trip to work near 23 minutes, with nearly one worker in five working from home (Census Reporter).

Michigan property taxes

Caledonia 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 Caledonia Township, our 2026 Uncapping Study found taxable value typically rises about 37% the year after a sale. On a $375,000 home, near the typical Caledonia Township value, that is roughly $1,580 more in first-year tax at the local median homestead millage. We build your payment on that post-sale number.

Looking at a Caledonia 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.

2025 homestead millage

Caledonia Township beside its neighbors

Michigan Treasury's 2025 totals for a homestead, in mills, and how far taxable value usually climbs once a home changes hands, per our 2026 Uncapping Study. A mill works out to $1 on every $1,000 of taxable value. Every card but one uses Caledonia Community Schools, so the gaps come from the unit doing the taxing, not the district.

Township land: 29.81 mills

Caledonia schools outside the village. The typical post-sale climb in taxable value here was about 37%, against about 52% for Kent County as a whole.

Village of Caledonia: 37.76 mills

The same township and school levies plus the village's own 7.944 mills on the summer bill, about $794 more each year than township land for every $100,000 of taxable value.

Thornapple Kellogg corner: 31.38 mills

The southeast corner along 108th Street, about $157 a year more than Caledonia schools on township land per $100,000 of taxable value.

Gaines Township: 27.92 mills

The neighbor to the west and the other large piece of ZIP 49316. Its 1.50 mills of special assessments bring the total to 29.42, and its typical rise after a sale was about 39%.

Bowne Township: 29.42 mills

Most of the Alto ZIP code, to the east. Close on rate, but its typical jump after a sale ran about 66%, the widest of these neighbors.

Leighton and Thornapple: 31.45 and 30.20

The Allegan and Barry county townships that share ZIP 49316. Their typical rises after a sale were about 55% and 44%.

Local resources

Check Caledonia Township records yourself

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

Caledonia Township Assessing, for parcel records and current taxable value
Caledonia Community Schools, for district boundaries and enrollment
Kent County property search, for county property tax records

Before the inspection window closes

Caledonia Township parcel checks

A call to the Township offices at 8196 Broadmoor Avenue or a look at the township's website answers most of these, and each is easier to settle while you can still renegotiate.

Village or township. The parcel record shows whether the home sits inside the Village of Caledonia, whose levy rides on the summer bill. The village's own site posts its council notices, including the yearly budget and tax rate hearing.
Water district or well. The township's utility maps show the water and sewer districts, and its water source page maps where the north district on Grand Rapids water ends and the south district on township wells begins.
Sewer district or septic. Outside the Northwest, M37 and Campau/Kettle Lake sewer districts, plan on a septic system and have it inspected along with the well.
The flood map. Pull up the lot in FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, above all on the Thornapple, the Coldwater or the east-side lakes.
Special assessments and unpaid bills. The township's property and tax page links parcel searches for assessments, taxes and utility balances. Ask the seller for the last summer and winter bills as well.
The sales the assessor relies on. The 2026 sales book lists sales by address with the assessor's neighborhood code, a quick way to read an appraisal against the street.
After closing. The principal residence exemption affidavit goes to the assessing office by June 1. If that date slips, the July or December Board of Review can add it for the current year and up to three years back.

Block-group Census estimates swing widely, so before you offer we compare the home with its own recent neighbors in the sales book.

What our clients say

5.0 on Google across 128 reviews

★★★★★

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.

Caledonia Township mortgage questions

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

What are homes selling for in Caledonia Township?

The township assessor’s sales book counts 222 arm’s-length sales of houses and condos in 2025, with a median near $415,000, up from about $400,000 on 181 sales in 2024. The setting moves the price more than the year does: across 2023 to 2025, apartment-style condos on Jasonville Court sold near $184,000, houses in the village grid near $300,000 and southeast homes, nearly all on 2 acres or more, near $562,000. Redfin’s figure for the village alone, about $332,000 across July to September 2026, rests on only about ten sales in September, and Zillow’s index for the Caledonia area was about $468,000. The Census figure of $382,600 is something else: owners’ own estimates gathered from 2020 through 2024.

The listing reads Caledonia, MI 49316. Is it in Caledonia Township?

Maybe not. Only about 38% of ZIP 49316 falls inside the township, by our point sample of Census ZIP boundaries. About 40% is Gaines Township, about 19% is Leighton Township in Allegan County and about 3% is Thornapple Township in Barry County. The Census geocoder puts 1625 Marketplace Dr SE, Caledonia 49316 in Gaines Township and Kentwood Public Schools, and 4474 Kalamazoo Dr, Caledonia 49316 in Leighton Township and Wayland Union Schools. It also runs the other way: about a third of the township uses Alto 49302 addresses, and Davenport University’s Grand Rapids 49512 address is inside it. Before we build your payment, we pull the parcel record to see which unit actually taxes the home.

Is the house inside the Village of Caledonia, and what changes if it is?

The village covers about 1.3 square miles around Main Street and Emmons Lake, roughly 4% of the township’s land, and it has its own council, planning commission and zoning board inside the township. Its levy was 7.944 mills in 2025, a line on the township’s summer bill, so a village homestead in Caledonia schools paid 37.76 mills in all against 29.81 outside the line, roughly $794 extra per year for each $100,000 of taxable value. In May 2026 the council set its 2026 rate after weighing an increase of up to about 2.86 mills that state law let it adopt without a public vote, so read the latest summer bill. Village sewer charges are billed by the township.

Which school district taxes a Caledonia Township home?

Almost always Caledonia Community Schools. The only other district inside the township is Thornapple Kellogg, in a small corner along 108th Street east of Whitneyville Avenue. The Census geocoder puts 9365 108th St SE, Middleville in Thornapple Kellogg, while 8681 108th St SE, also a Middleville address, stays in Caledonia schools. Treasury’s 2025 homestead totals were 29.81 mills with Caledonia schools on township land and 31.38 with Thornapple Kellogg. The parcel record names the district, so we read it instead of the listing.

Does the house get township water, and where does it come from?

Only in the northwest quarter along M-37, in Jasonville and around the village. The north district, from Jasonville up to 60th Street, was set to switch from township wells to City of Grand Rapids water, drawn from Lake Michigan, on March 10, 2026, with water charges expected to run about 60% higher and the whole utility bill about 30% higher. The south district, Glen Valley and the village southward, stays on the township’s south well field until the Kraft Trunkline is built, tentatively 2027 or 2028. The township put the hard water from the north well field it is retiring at 22 to 30 grains, against 8 to 10 for Grand Rapids water. A home on a private well does not have to connect, and where a main runs in front, connecting costs a $4,000 fee plus a contractor’s work.

How common are wells and septic systems here?

Common outside the northwest quarter, Jasonville and the village area. Public sewer reaches three districts: the northwest corner, the M-37 corridor around the village, and the homes around Campau and Kettle lakes. Nearly everything east of the Thornapple outside that lake district, and most rural land on the west side, uses its own well and septic system. Add a water test and a septic tank and field inspection to the inspection list. Rural lots tend to be large, since the township’s master plan sets a 2-acre minimum for its rural preservation and farmland areas, and the township’s site points owners of a failing system to the state’s Septic Replacement Loan Program, run by Michigan Saves with EGLE.

Will I need flood insurance in Caledonia Township?

For some lots. FEMA’s Kent County maps, effective February 2023, show a little over 4% of the land here as high-risk flood zone in our point sample. About 42% of that lies beside the Thornapple River, about 15% beside the Coldwater River in the southeast corner and most of the rest around Campau, Kettle, Buck, Blodgett and Barber lakes. The village and everything west of Kraft Avenue had none in our sample. Most of the mapped area here is Zone A, drawn without a base flood elevation, so ask whether the seller has an elevation certificate. A home in the zone with a federally backed loan must carry flood insurance.

What else can show up on a Caledonia Township tax bill?

Special assessments, which are charges rather than taxes. The township bills lake weed control and street light districts this way, about $38,600 and $24,700 in its 2026 budget, and its Property and Tax page links a Special Assessments search by parcel. County drain charges and unpaid utility bills can land on the tax roll too. A rental or second home also loses the principal residence exemption: on township land in Caledonia schools the 2025 non-homestead total was 47.81 mills against 29.81, around $1,800 more per year per $100,000 of taxable value. On a bill that has the exemption, the Cal School Oper line reads exempt.

Talk with a local mortgage expert

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

Talk with Samantha Start my application

1
Tell us what you are trying to do
Not what product you want. What you are actually trying to accomplish.
2
Samantha looks at your situation
She works out what matters most for you specifically.
3
You leave with a plan
Your options, the tradeoffs, and your next step. No obligation to go further.

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.