Kent County, Michigan

Mortgage Broker in Cascade Township, MI

Buying in Cascade Township with a Grand Rapids, Ada or Alto mailing address? Your loan goes out to multiple wholesale lenders through one Michigan broker, and the payment is figured on the township's tax rate, not the mailing city's.

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 Cascade Township

Cascade Township is a charter township in Kent County just east of Grand Rapids, home to about 20,200 residents in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate. Gerald R. Ford International Airport is in Cascade Township, and the Cascade community at 28th Street and Cascade Road was platted in 1845. The northern half of the township is part of the Forest Hills census area, and the median household income in Cascade Township is near $135,900.

By the numbers

Cascade Township housing and mortgage snapshot

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

$472,000

Typical home value, from the market research on this page

+40%

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

1.06%

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

4

Residential ZIP codes: 49546, 49301, 49302, 49512

What financing looks like in Cascade Township

Redfin publishes no figure for the township itself, so its ZIP codes stand in. Over the three months ending September 2026 the median sale ran about $525,000 in 49546, the Grand Rapids ZIP code that covers the village and the west side, and about $750,000 in 49301, the Ada ZIP code that takes in the east side, and homes in both went under contract in about 8 or 9 days. Owners' own estimates in the Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 survey put the middle half of Cascade Township homes between about $355,000 and $661,000. Every price in that range can finance as a conventional loan under $832,750, the 2026 conforming loan limit, and FHA's 2026 ceiling for Kent County, $541,287, sits above the township's median value. About one owner-occupied home in seven is valued at $750,000 or more, and one in fourteen at $1 million or more, which is where a jumbo loan, with its larger reserve and paperwork requirements, tends to enter the conversation.

Two local items change the file more than the price does. Some neighborhoods still draw water from private wells, and the township's PFAS page follows five areas where the state has sampled wells or groundwater. A well test that covers PFAS belongs in the inspection plan, and township ordinance requires a hookup to public water when a failed well sits within 300 feet of a main, a cost that can fall on the owner. On the Thornapple, a lot inside FEMA's high-risk flood zone needs flood insurance for most mortgages, and the river's special assessment rides on the winter tax bill, so both belong in the escrow estimate before you commit.

The township's median value also sits under MSHDA's $566,355 price cap. Buyers who meet the program's income and credit rules can pair a MI Home Loan with MI 10K, a second loan of $10,000 for the down payment that is repaid at a sale, a refinance or a payoff, or once the house is no longer your residence.

Talk with Samantha Compare loan options

Cascade Township and Kentwood share two ZIP codes and two school districts, yet in 2025 a Kentwood homestead in the same district paid about 9.6 more mills.

The market

The Cascade Township housing market

The typical home value in Cascade Township is near $472,500, the median for owner-occupied homes in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which counts about 6,400 owner-occupied homes here. The median year built is 1983, and Cascade Township is mostly larger homes on wooded lots and in established subdivisions. Homeowners pay a median of about $5,010 a year in property taxes, an effective property tax rate of about 1.06% of the median value.

Mailing addresses

Cascade Township by ZIP code

The township is split among four ZIP codes, each shared with other towns, so every ZIP-wide sale price mixes in homes from Kentwood, Ada, Bowne and other neighbors. Sale prices are Redfin medians for the three months July to September 2026, owner values are Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024, and the land shares are from the 2020 Census crosswalk of ZIP code areas to townships.

ZIP 49546, Grand Rapids, near $525,000

About 28% of the township's land: the village, the Township Hall on Tahoe Drive, Laraway Lake and the northwest corner. Cascade holds about 54% of this ZIP, with Grand Rapids Township, Kentwood, the City of Grand Rapids and Ada Township splitting the rest. Redfin's median was up about 11% on a year earlier, with 103 sales in September. Census owner median $417,900 across the ZIP, typical home from 1980.

ZIP 49301, Ada, near $750,000

About 32% of the township's land: the east bank of the Thornapple, Aspenwood, Buttrick Avenue and the Lowell schools side. Only about a fifth of this ZIP is Cascade Township. Ada Township holds about three fifths and Cannon Township about an eighth, so the sale median leans on Ada homes. Census owner median $548,800 across the ZIP, typical home from 1993.

ZIP 49512, Grand Rapids, near $370,000

About 31% of the township's land, much of it the airport and the industrial ground around it, plus homes at the south end. Kentwood holds about half of this ZIP, and Redfin's list of recent sales here is mostly Kentwood addresses, so the median says more about Kentwood than about Cascade. Homes went under contract in about 12 days, and 62 sold in September.

ZIP 49302, Alto, near $555,000

About 9% of the township's land, in the southeast corner along Whitneyville Avenue. Cascade is only about 6% of this ZIP, while Bowne Township holds about 63% and Caledonia Township about 24%. On 25 September sales, Redfin's median rose about 16%, and homes took about 30 days to go under contract, against 14 a year earlier. Census owner median $400,700, typical home from 1992.

Where to look

Cascade Township neighborhoods

Spaulding Avenue and Hillsboro

The northwest corner between Burton and Hall streets, from Spaulding Avenue east past Walden and Wood lakes. About 1,400 homes, nearly all owner-occupied and typically from 1991, with Census owner values near $560,000. Some streets here still use private wells, and in July 2026 the township won a $12 million state grant to bring public water to 117 homes around Hillsboro Avenue.

Laraway Lake

North of 28th Street and the village, from Laraway Lake Drive east to the Thornapple River. About 450 homes, every one a detached house, typically from 1995. The Census owner median is near $641,000 but carries a wide margin, about $242,000 either way. Parcels facing Laraway Lake share a special assessment for weed control that has been on winter bills since 2021.

Burton Street and Irene Avenue

A band between 28th Street and Burton Street on the west side. Its roughly 900 homes mix about 490 detached houses with about 170 attached homes and 150 units in buildings of five or more, typically from 1978, and the owner median sits near $347,000. State funding will bring public water and seal the old wells at 48 homes around Irene Avenue, with work expected to start in fall 2026 or spring 2027.

Cascade village

The crossroads of 28th Street and Cascade Road, platted in 1845, with the Cascade Library's Wisner Center on Jacksmith Avenue and the township-owned Cascade Dam on the river beside it. Owner values near $450,000, homes typically from 1980, and about 200 units in buildings of five or more. A new water main serving Burger Avenue and Goodwood Drive, south of the village, was finished in 2025.

Tahoe Drive and Patterson Avenue

Around the Township Hall at 5920 Tahoe Drive and west along 28th Street toward Patterson Avenue. About 240 attached homes and 230 units in larger buildings outnumber its 150 or so detached houses, typically from 1993. About two thirds of the land uses the 49512 ZIP code, and a slice is in Caledonia Community Schools. The owner median, near $331,000, carries a wide margin.

The Thornapple's east bank

North of Cascade Road on the river's east side, up to the Ada Township line. About 650 homes, all detached, with no renter households in the Census count, typically from 1979, with owner values near $568,000. About three fifths of this area uses the Ada ZIP code 49301 though it is Cascade Township, and a few riverbank lots fall in the high-risk flood zone.

Aspenwood and Hidden Hills

East of the river around Aspenwood and Colchester drives, mostly in Forest Hills schools with a strip in Lowell Area Schools. About 700 homes typically from 1977, owner values near $473,000, and 44 of the township's 61 mobile homes by Census count. State sampling there found PFAS above Michigan's drinking water criteria in 55 of 127 private wells tested by February 2026.

Buttrick and Whitneyville avenues

The east quarter of the township, out to the Lowell Township line, with Quiggle Lake and a northeast corner that reaches the Grand River's floodplain. About 1,100 detached homes typically from 1979, and an owner median near $437,000 with a wide margin. Close to half sits in Lowell Area Schools, and nearly all of it uses Ada addresses, the township's Fire Station 2 at 2990 Buttrick Avenue among them.

The airport and the south end

The south end down to 60th Street, about three eighths of the township's land, much of it Gerald R. Ford International Airport. Its roughly 700 detached homes are the newest in the township, typically from 2002, with an owner median near $574,000. Most of it is in Caledonia Community Schools with Grand Rapids 49512 or Alto 49302 addresses, and riverfront lots here pay the Thornapple River special assessment.

Schools and commute

Schools

Census school district lines split the township three ways, by our sample of its land. Forest Hills Public Schools covers about 54%, across the north and the middle with the village. Caledonia Community Schools covers about 33%, the airport and most of the south end. Lowell Area Schools covers about 13% along the east side. The township treasurer collects for all three, and Michigan Treasury's 2025 homestead totals sit within one mill of each other: 31.10 with Caledonia, 31.13 with Forest Hills and 32.05 with Lowell, at the widest about $96 a year on $100,000 of taxable value. Mailing towns cut across these lines, since the Lowell part carries Ada addresses and the Caledonia part mostly Grand Rapids 49512 or Alto 49302 addresses. Forest Hills sorts its schools into Central, Northern and Eastern attendance areas, so ask the district which one an address feeds. The same name belongs to the Census Bureau's Forest Hills area, a statistical place covering the township's north half and much of Ada Township, not a separate town with its own taxes.

Commute

I-96 crosses the middle of the township from northwest to southeast, M-6 runs up from 60th Street to its eastern end at I-96 just east of the airport, and 28th Street carries traffic west into Kentwood and Grand Rapids. From the Township Hall on Tahoe Drive, free-flow drive times run about 11 minutes to the airport terminal, 11 to central Ada, 15 to Grand Rapids City Hall (about 11 miles), 17 to Caledonia, 49 to downtown Holland and a little over an hour to the Capitol in Lansing or to downtown Kalamazoo. The airport is a workplace in its own right: its economic impact study counted 3,764 jobs on the airport campus in 2022. Census figures put the typical trip to work here near 19 minutes, with about one worker in four working from home (Census Reporter).

Michigan property taxes

Cascade 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 Cascade Township, our 2026 Uncapping Study found taxable value typically rises about 40% the year after a sale. On a $475,000 home, near the typical Cascade Township value, that is roughly $2,090 more in first-year tax at the local median homestead millage. We build your payment on that post-sale number.

Looking at a Cascade 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

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.

2025 homestead millage

Cascade Township beside the neighbors that share its ZIP codes

Michigan Treasury's 2025 total homestead rates, beside each unit's usual jump in taxable value once a home changes hands, as measured in our 2026 Uncapping Study. One mill is $100 a year for a home with $100,000 of taxable value.

Cascade Township: 31.10 to 32.05 mills

Caledonia, Forest Hills or Lowell schools. Taxable value typically rises about 40% the year after a sale, below the Kent County figure of about 52%.

Kentwood: 39.22 to 41.99 mills

Shares 49512 and 49546 and both the Forest Hills and Caledonia districts. With Forest Hills it paid 40.72 mills, about $959 more a year than Cascade on $100,000 of taxable value, and its taxable value typically rises about 54% after a sale.

City of Grand Rapids: 33.12 to 36.31 mills

The city's corner of 49546, mostly in Grand Rapids Public Schools at 33.12 mills. With Forest Hills the city paid 36.31, about $518 a year more than Cascade on the same taxable value, and residents also owe the city income tax. Taxable value there typically climbs about 70% after a sale.

Ada Township: 31.50 to 32.57 mills

Shares 49301 and a corner of 49546. About a third of a mill above Cascade with the same school district, and its usual post-sale jump is about 46%.

Bowne Township: 22.63 to 30.99 mills

Most of the Alto ZIP code 49302, where the rate moves with four school districts. Taxable value there typically rises about 66% after a sale.

A Cascade rental or second home: 49.10 to 49.80 mills

Without the principal residence exemption the school operating millage applies. A Forest Hills parcel paid 49.13 against 31.13, about $1,800 a year more for each $100,000 of taxable value.

Local resources

Check Cascade Township records yourself

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

Cascade Township Assessing Department, for parcel records and current taxable value
Forest Hills Public Schools, for district boundaries and enrollment
Caledonia Community Schools, for district boundaries and enrollment
Lowell Area Schools, for district boundaries and enrollment
Kent County property search, for county property tax records

Cascade Township due diligence

Six things to settle on a Cascade Township house

Every item here takes a phone call or one page on the township's site, and all of it is simpler to settle while your inspection window is still open.

Where the water comes from. Water and sewer come from the City of Grand Rapids system where the lines run (township utility list). On a private well, add a PFAS test and read the township's PFAS page. It follows five areas: Hillsboro Avenue, Irene Avenue, Hidden Hills and Aspenwood, Burger Avenue and Goodwood Drive, and the former Lacks plant on Galbraith Avenue. Ask how close the nearest main is, since a failed well within 300 feet of public water has to give way to a connection.
The flood map and the dam. Look the address up on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and see the township's FEMA page for the map panels covering the Thornapple and Grand rivers. On the river above the dam, the Cascade Dam page lists the spring and fall drawdowns, which lower the water by no more than 2 feet, and links a live river level gauge.
Special assessments. The winter bill can carry the Thornapple River or Laraway Lake district, county drain charges, hydrant or streetlight districts, and water or sewer extension assessments (township tax page). The township's finance department answers questions about any balance on a parcel.
The airport. The airport authority posts its noise exposure map, and the township's zoning map draws the noise contours too. The zoning ordinance Cascade voters backed in August 2026 holds new industrial and commercial building south and east of the airport to the areas already zoned for it.
Private roads. The same ordinance requires future private roads to be built to public road standards at the developer's expense. On an existing private road, ask who plows and repairs it and whether a recorded maintenance agreement exists.
After closing. File the Property Transfer Affidavit with the township assessor within 45 days and the principal residence exemption by June 1 or November 1 (assessing questions). The township takes both the summer bill, due September 14, and the winter bill, due February 14, through the end of February, after which unpaid bills go to the Kent County Treasurer.

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.

Cascade Township mortgage questions

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

My listing says Grand Rapids, Ada or Alto. How do I know it is in Cascade Township?

Check the parcel, not the mailing town. The township uses four ZIP codes and shares every one: it holds a little over half of 49546, a little under half of 49512, about a fifth of the Ada ZIP code 49301 and about 6% of the Alto ZIP code 49302. Neighbors such as Kentwood, Ada Township and Bowne Township hold the rest. The Census geocoder places the township’s own Fire Station 2, at 2990 Buttrick Avenue SE, Ada, inside Cascade Township. The parcel record names the taxing unit, and we check it before we build your payment.

Does the school district change the tax bill in Cascade Township?

Barely. Treasury’s 2025 homestead totals were 31.10 mills with Caledonia Community Schools, 31.13 with Forest Hills Public Schools and 32.05 with Lowell Area Schools, so the widest gap is about $96 a year on $100,000 of taxable value. The bigger gap sits at the township line: Kentwood homes in the same Forest Hills district paid 40.72 mills, about $959 more on the same taxable value.

Is the house on public water or a private well?

Ask the seller early. Water and sewer in the township come from the City of Grand Rapids system, but some neighborhoods still run on private wells, and the township’s PFAS page follows five areas where the state has sampled wells or groundwater. On a well, add a PFAS test to the inspection plan and find out how far the nearest water main is. Under township ordinance, when a well within 300 feet of available public water fails, the owner connects instead of drilling a new one, and the township warns that the cost can land on the owner.

Does Cascade Township have flood zones I should know about?

Yes, on a small share of its land. Our sample of FEMA’s map puts about 2% of the township’s land in the high-risk zone, roughly three fifths of it in the northeast corner where the township reaches the Grand River’s floodplain and the rest in strips along the Thornapple River. A home in that zone needs flood insurance for most mortgages. Riverfront homes near the Cascade Dam also fall under the dam’s emergency action plan, which the township keeps and tests every year.

What is the Thornapple River special assessment?

A charge split equally among the parcels facing the river between 60th Street and the Cascade Dam. It pays for aquatic weed control, sediment work, debris removal and navigation markers. The township created it in 2020 for 15 years, through 2035, and it has appeared on winter tax bills since 2021. Laraway Lake has its own district for weed control. On a riverfront or lakefront listing, ask for the last winter bill so the charge goes into your escrow estimate.

How much airport noise reaches Cascade Township homes?

It depends on the street, so look at the map before you tour. Gerald R. Ford International Airport covers about 4.9 square miles of the township’s southwest. The noise exposure map the airport posts, dated 2005, carries its 65 DNL contour, the level the FAA treats as significant noise exposure for homes, east past Thornapple River Drive and across the river, and south past 60th Street. The township’s 2026 zoning map also draws the airport noise contours. Visit at a few different times of day.

What happens to the property tax after I buy?

It usually rises. While one owner keeps a Michigan home, its taxable value grows under a cap, and a sale lifts that cap the following year. In Cascade Township our 2026 Uncapping Study measured a typical increase of about 40% in that first year, against about 52% across Kent County. Two filings matter after closing: the Property Transfer Affidavit, due to the township assessor within 45 days, and the principal residence exemption, filed by June 1 or November 1, which spares a home you live in up to 18 mills of school operating levy.

Will I need a jumbo loan in Cascade Township?

Only when the loan itself tops $832,750, the 2026 conforming ceiling, and the price alone does not decide that. The typical home, near $472,500 by the Census estimate, finances well inside it. About one owner-occupied home in fourteen is valued at $1 million or more, and those are the purchases where a jumbo loan, with its larger reserves and fuller documentation, usually comes up. We lay out both before you choose a down payment.

Talk with a local mortgage expert

Tell Samantha what you are trying to do in Cascade 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.