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Livingston County, Michigan

Mortgage Broker in Hamburg Township, MI

Pinckney, Brighton and Whitmore Lake mailing addresses all reach into Hamburg Township, and three school tax rates sit inside it, so Samantha starts from the parcel, checks the sewer, the well and the flood map, and shops your loan across multiple wholesale lenders.

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Buying a home in Hamburg Township

Hamburg Township, in Livingston County, is home to about 21,200 residents in the Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey (21,259 in the 2020 census) across about 32 square miles of land. Its ZIP codes also reach into Brighton, Howell and Pinckney, so the parcel record, not the mailing address, shows which unit's tax rates apply. Downtown Ann Arbor is about 14 miles south in a straight line, and downtown Detroit is about 42 miles east in a straight line.

By the numbers

Hamburg Township housing and mortgage snapshot

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

$385,000

Typical home value, from the market research on this page

+39%

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

4

Residential ZIP codes: 48169, 48116, 48189, 48843

What financing looks like in Hamburg Township

Redfin's median sale for the three months ending September 2026 was about $460,000 in the Pinckney 48169 ZIP code, up about 12% on a year earlier, with homes going under contract in about 28 days. That ZIP is the closest market read for the township, since about half of its homes are in Hamburg Township, but it also takes in Putnam Township and the Village of Pinckney. Census estimates for 2020 to 2024 put the township's own owner median at $384,700, with a quarter of owners below about $282,800 and a quarter above about $487,800. Prices like these keep most purchases in conventional financing well inside the 2026 conforming limit of $832,750. FHA works when the loan stays within the 2026 Livingston County limit of $541,287, and VA is open to eligible veterans and service members. Jumbo financing matters only when the loan amount itself passes the conforming limit.

In Hamburg Township the house's utilities shape the loan file more than its price does. The township's 2020 master plan says residents largely rely on private wells, and only eight businesses were on public water when it was written, so plan on a well with nearly any purchase. Sewer runs the other way. The township built a low-pressure sewer for the old cottage lots around the Huron River chain of lakes, where small lots and a high water table were failing septic fields, and more than 2,700 homes and businesses now connect through a grinder pump on their own lot (township sewer page). Outside the sewer districts a house runs on its own septic system. Because Livingston County's health department does no well or septic inspection when a home changes hands, the water test and the septic evaluation on a Hamburg Township house are yours to order during the inspection period.

Two kinds of property need their own questions. The Census counts about 363 manufactured homes in the township, most of them in the one manufactured housing community the master plan places on 88 acres in the southeast corner. A manufactured home on rented land is often financed as personal property with a chattel loan rather than a mortgage, and CFPB research finds those loans cost borrowers more, so learn how the home is titled before you plan the loan. The same plan notes a 70-unit open-space site condominium under construction along M-36 west of the railroad crossing. A site condo is a detached house set up legally as a condominium, and Fannie Mae skips its condo project review for detached units. For a first purchase, MSHDA's MI Home Loan allows a price up to $566,355, above the latest median in each of the township's three main ZIP codes, and can pair with the $10,000 MI 10K, which comes due on a sale, refinance or payoff, or once the home is no longer owner-occupied. Both programs cap household income.

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About 1,870 Hamburg Township homes carry Whitmore Lake 48189 addresses, and none of them is in Whitmore Lake Public Schools: Treasury's 2025 table lists only the Brighton, Pinckney and Dexter districts in the township.

The market

The Hamburg Township housing market

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey puts the median owner-occupied home value in Hamburg Township near $384,700, across about 8,053 owner-occupied homes, with a median year built of 1991. The typical home value in Hamburg Township is near $385,000. Homeowners pay a median of about $3,921 a year in property taxes, an effective rate of about 1.02% of the median value.

Sub-markets

Hamburg Township by ZIP code

Every ZIP code that serves Hamburg Township also serves somewhere else, so a mailing address never settles which township taxes a home. Redfin's medians cover July to September 2026 for each ZIP code as a whole, the home counts are from the 2020 Census, and the owner values are Census estimates for 2020 to 2024.

48169, Pinckney: about half the township

About 4,610 of the township's homes, from Rush Lake, Bass Lake and Winans Lake to Zukey, Strawberry, Gallagher and Baseline lakes, all in Pinckney Community Schools. Hamburg Township holds about half of the ZIP code's homes, and Putnam Township, with the Village of Pinckney, most of the rest. Redfin's median sale was about $460,000, up about 12%, with homes going under contract in about 28 days. The Census owner median for the whole ZIP is $373,400.

48116, Brighton: about a quarter

About 2,220 homes across the north side: Ore Lake, Maltby Road, Pine Valley and part of the Buck Lake area. Only about one 48116 home in five is in Hamburg Township. The City of Brighton, Green Oak and Genoa hold most of the others, so the ZIP-wide Redfin median of about $453,000, up about 10% at about 21 days, is mostly a Brighton figure. Inside the township, these homes split almost evenly between Brighton and Pinckney schools.

48189, Whitmore Lake: about a fifth

About 1,870 homes in the southeast and along the south line: the township hall area, Hamburg Lake and the manufactured housing community, Whitewood and Loon lakes and the Dexter district subdivisions. Hamburg Township has about 30% of the ZIP code's homes, and Northfield Township in Washtenaw County close to half. Redfin's ZIP-wide median was about $435,000, up about 5%, at about 20 days. On the Hamburg side these homes are in Pinckney or Dexter schools.

48843, 48139 and 48143: small pieces

About 100 homes on the northwest edge near the Brighton State Recreation Area carry Howell 48843 addresses, about 86 near the old village use Hamburg 48139, and about 43 near Zukey Lake use Lakeland 48143. Together they are under 3% of the township's homes, and Hamburg Township Assessing values every one of them.

Where to look

Hamburg Township neighborhoods

Ore Lake and the Huron River's east bank

The northeast lake corner of the township: Ore Lake, the Ore Lake Heights, Ore Lake Shores and Partridge Pointe subdivisions, and the Huron River along the east edge. It is mostly Brighton Area Schools, and every home has a Brighton 48116 address. The typical house here dates from 1973, the oldest median of any block group in the township, and owners put values near $290,300 with a wide margin. About a fifth of the land is in FEMA's high-risk flood zone.

Maltby Road and Pine Valley

Two block groups between Ore Lake and the City of Brighton line: the Maltby Road subdivisions (Maltby Hills, Spencer Woods, Towering Pines, Breckenridge) and, to the west, Pine Valley Estates, Setters Pointe, Campbell Mills and Wolf Lake. Every home has a Brighton 48116 address, yet the Pine Valley side splits about evenly between Brighton and Pinckney schools. Nearly all detached houses from around 1990 to 1995, with owner estimates near $491,000 by Maltby Road and $413,500 by Pine Valley. The master plan puts the City of Brighton's wastewater plant in this corner of the township.

Bishop, Appleton and Lime lakes by the state recreation area

The north and northwest, where the master plan counts about 4,345 acres of the Brighton State Recreation Area inside the township. Bishop Lake Road, the township's only county primary road still in gravel, leads into the park, and the two block groups take in Appleton, Murray and Walker lakes, the Parishfield crossroads, the Stonegate subdivision, Chilson Pond and Lime Lake. Owner estimates run near $393,500 to $468,100 across its two block groups, typical houses from 1992 and 1993, and almost none of the land is in FEMA's high-risk zone. Pinckney, Brighton and Howell ZIP codes all appear here.

Rush Lake and Rush Lake Road

West of Lakeland around Rush Lake, along Rush Lake Road and Chambers Road, with the Lakelands Trail crossing it, the Rush Lake Hills golf course just north and Pinckney Community Schools' Country Elementary at the south edge. The master plan added the area around Rush Lake to the sewer service area, and the township fee schedule lists a Rush Lake sewer system. About 830 homes, typical one from 1992, owner estimates near $340,100, with about 45 attached or apartment units among the houses. Every home counted in the 2020 Census had a Pinckney 48169 address.

Buck Lake and the river's north bend

At the Huron River's north bend, around Buck Lake and Pleasant Lake, with the Huron River Highlands, Eagle Run, River Park and Hiawatha Beach subdivisions. The township's floodplain page names floodway near the Buck Lake subdivision, and about 9% of this block group's land is in the high-risk zone. Typical house from 1983, owner estimates near $348,900, and one of the few spots with small apartment buildings, about 55 units in buildings of five or more. Addresses split between Whitmore Lake 48189 and Brighton 48116.

Winans Lake, Oneida Lake and Lakeland

The middle of the township around Winans Lake and Oneida Lake, the Lakelands Golf and Country Club and Lakeland, the old railroad stop the master plan calls the port of entry to the lakes. Winans Lake Road, which the plan names with Chilson Road as the busiest county roads here, crosses the Huron River on a bridge rebuilt in 2009. About 850 homes, typical one from 1991, nearly all owner-occupied, with owner estimates near $416,500. About 11% of the land is in the high-risk flood zone. Most addresses are Pinckney 48169.

Old Hamburg village on M-36 and Merrill Road

The old village of Hamburg, a two-railroad stop by 1886 and now the township's civic center, with the township hall and library on Merrill Road, the fire station and the wastewater plant near M-36 and Merrill. The paved Lakelands Trail starts here and follows the old rail bed west to Pinckney, and this is the one part of the township on gravity sewer, along with the Industrial Drive area. About 470 homes, all detached, typical one from 1979, owner estimates near $419,700 with a wide margin. Addresses mix Brighton 48116, Whitmore Lake 48189 and Hamburg 48139.

Hamburg Lake and the southeast corner

The southeast corner around Hamburg Lake holds the township's one manufactured housing community, about 88 acres in the master plan, beside the Hamburg Hills, Coventry Woods, Shadow Woods Estates, Bennett Hills and Thornebank Colony subdivisions. Nearly half of its roughly 750 homes are manufactured homes, so the Census owner median for the block group says little about any one house, and we price the specific home. Typical build year 1991. Whitmore Lake 48189 addresses, all in Pinckney schools except a few dozen homes in Dexter's district.

Zukey and Strawberry lakes

The heart of the chain of lakes, where Zukey and Strawberry lakes meet the Huron River and canals reach back from the shore. It is the most flood-exposed part of the township: about two fifths of the land is in FEMA's high-risk zone. About 530 homes, typical one from 1981, roughly one in five rented and about 50 kept for seasonal use, with owner estimates near $445,000 and a wide margin. Both lakes are in the township's aquatic weed control district, and Strawberry Lake can no longer be treated with copper sulfate, to protect the snuffbox mussel in the river.

Whitewood and Loon lakes on the Dexter schools edge

The south side along the Washtenaw County line, from Loon Lake and the Whitewood Lakes to Manly Bennett Memorial Park beside the township hall. The Fox Run, Fidelio Vistas and Strawberry Woods subdivisions here are in Dexter Community Schools, at 31.58 homestead mills, while the lake streets are in Pinckney's district. About 710 homes, typical one from 1989, owner estimates near $472,500. The floodplain page notes floodway just south of the Whitewood Lake area, and about 16% of the land is in the high-risk zone. Whitmore Lake 48189 addresses throughout.

Baseline, Gallagher and Tamarack lakes

The southwest arm of the chain, where Gallagher, Baseline, Cordley and Tamarack lakes connect toward Portage Lake. All detached houses, about 650 of them, typical one from 1991, owner estimates near $486,900 with a wide margin. More than a quarter of the land is in FEMA's high-risk zone. Tamarack Lake homes are on their own sewer district at $105 a quarter, tied to the Portage Base Lakes Area Water and Sewer Authority, and Gallagher Lake is in the aquatic weed control district.

Bass Lake, Whispering Pines and the schools campus

The west side toward Pinckney: Bass Lake, whose level the county drain commissioner holds at a court-set 853.95 feet, Mohican and Halfmoon lakes, the Whispering Pines and Fairways of Whispering Pines subdivisions, and the Navigator and Pathfinder campus of Pinckney Community Schools near the Portage Lake shore. About 1,590 homes across three block groups, typical one from 1993, a tract owner median near $357,000, and about 105 kept for seasonal use. The Bass Lake block group has about a fifth of its land in the high-risk zone.

Before you write an offer

Six things to settle on a Hamburg Township house

Each of these comes from the township's own rules or records, and each is easier to sort out while the offer can still change.

  • The grinder pump and the water softener. On the township sewer the pump on the lot stops when the power does, sump pumps and downspouts may not drain into it, and township ordinance requires potassium chloride, not sodium chloride, in any water softener. The grinder pump care page has the rest, and the sewer emergency line, answered around the clock, is 810-217-6085.
  • The well file. Look up the house in the county health department's well and septic records by address or parcel number before your inspection, then have the water tested. The county does no inspection at a sale.
  • Work in the floodplain. Filling, digging and even fences in the 100-year floodplain need a township land use permit, and the township keeps elevation certificates for new building back to 1986. Start with the township floodplain page and the FEMA Flood Map Service Center.
  • Lake assessments. The aquatic weed control district covers Gallagher, Long, Strawberry and Zukey lakes and the Huron River, with treatment and harvesting dates posted each season. Bass Lake's level is set by court order and kept by the county drain commissioner.
  • The road in front of the lot. Many lake streets were laid out in the 1920s and 1930s without county approval, some are a single gravel lane, and some platted roads were never built, so the cost of improving one can fall on the owner who builds. Private road upkeep runs through township assessment districts on the winter bill, and the road maintenance FAQs explain how one is set up.
  • Two forms after closing. The Property Transfer Affidavit and the principal residence exemption affidavit both go to Hamburg Township Assessing. Without the exemption the home is billed 18 more mills, and the treasurer's page lists the July 1 and December 1 mailing dates.

Schools and commute

Schools

Census school district boundaries put about four in five of Hamburg Township's 2020 homes in Pinckney Community Schools, which covers the township from Rush Lake and Bass Lake east through the chain of lakes. Brighton Area Schools takes the northeast corner around Ore Lake, the Maltby Road subdivisions and part of Pine Valley, about 13% of homes, and Dexter Community Schools a strip on the Washtenaw County line with the Fox Run, Fidelio Vistas and Strawberry Woods subdivisions, about 5%. Here the district moves the bill a good deal: Michigan Treasury's 2025 homestead totals in the township were 22.62 mills with Brighton, 27.25 with Pinckney and 31.58 with Dexter, a spread of about $896 a year on each $100,000 of taxable value. The mailing address does not follow the district. About half of the township's Brighton 48116 homes sit in Pinckney Community Schools, and its Whitmore Lake 48189 homes split between Pinckney and Dexter.

Commute

M-36 is the township's main road, running from Pinckney east through Lakeland and the old Hamburg village to US-23 in Green Oak Township, about 6 miles and 10 minutes from the township hall on Merrill Road. Chilson Road heads north toward Howell, and Brighton Road toward the City of Brighton. From the hall, downtown Brighton is about 9 miles and 17 minutes away outside rush hour, the Village of Pinckney about 7 miles and 13 minutes, Ann Arbor's City Hall about 15 miles and 21 minutes, and the University of Michigan's hospital campus about 16 miles and 23 minutes. U-M's facts page cites it as one of Michigan's five largest employers, with about 24,000 people at University of Michigan Health alone. Novi is about half an hour away, Detroit Metro Airport about 51 minutes and downtown Detroit about an hour. Census estimates put the township's average commute near 32 minutes, about one worker in five works from home, and about half of its workers have jobs outside Livingston County.

Michigan property taxes

Hamburg 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 Hamburg Township, our 2026 Uncapping Study found taxable value typically rises about 39% the year after a sale. On a $375,000 home, near the typical Hamburg Township value, that is roughly $1,440 more in first-year tax at the local median homestead millage. We build your payment on that post-sale number.

Looking at a Hamburg 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

I'd much rather somebody ask me, "Why are your taxes higher than what I'm seeing online?" than have them build a housing budget around the wrong assumption.

2025 millage

What sets a Hamburg Township tax bill

Michigan Treasury's 2025 total rates in mills, where one mill is $1 for each $1,000 of taxable value. The first three cards are homestead rates inside the township, the fourth is what a second home or rental pays, the fifth is how the bill falls across the year, and the last shows the same districts next door.

Brighton Area Schools: 22.62 mills

The northeast corner around Ore Lake, Maltby Road and part of Pine Valley, about 13% of homes. About $2,262 a year for each $100,000 of taxable value.

Pinckney Community Schools: 27.25 mills

About four homes in five, from Rush Lake and Bass Lake to the chain of lakes. About $463 more a year than the Brighton side on each $100,000 of taxable value.

Dexter Community Schools: 31.58 mills

The strip on the Washtenaw County line with Fox Run, Fidelio Vistas and Strawberry Woods, about 5% of homes. About $896 more a year than the Brighton side per $100,000.

A second home or rental: 18 mills more

The principal residence exemption covers up to 18 mills of school operating tax. Without it, Treasury's 2025 totals are 40.62, 45.25 and 49.58 mills in the three districts.

The winter bill carries most of it

On a Pinckney-district homestead, the township's 2025 breakdown puts only the state education tax, the county's operating levy and the administration fee on the July bill. School debt, the ISD and township police, fire and library come in December.

Same districts, other townships

Pinckney Community Schools homes pay 25.65 mills in Putnam Township and 37.62 in the Village of Pinckney, and Dexter's district pays 35.80 in Webster Township and 42.26 in Northfield Township, all 2025 homestead totals.

Local resources

Check Hamburg Township records yourself

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

What our clients say

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Individual experiences. Results vary.

Hamburg Township mortgage questions

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

My listing says Pinckney, Brighton or Whitmore Lake. Is the home in Hamburg Township?

It may be. In the 2020 Census about 52% of Hamburg Township’s homes had Pinckney 48169 addresses, 25% Brighton 48116 and 21% Whitmore Lake 48189, with the rest in Howell, Hamburg or Lakeland ZIP codes. Each of those ZIP codes covers other places too: about half of the 48169 homes are elsewhere, mostly in Putnam Township, about four in five 48116 homes are in the City of Brighton, Green Oak, Genoa or Brighton Township, and 48189 is mostly Northfield Township across the Washtenaw County line. Even the township hall on Merrill Road has a Whitmore Lake street address. The parcel record decides which unit taxes the home, and Hamburg Township Assessing, 810-222-1163, can confirm it.

One of three, and the parcel decides. Pinckney Community Schools covers about four in five homes, Brighton Area Schools the northeast corner around Ore Lake, Maltby Road and part of Pine Valley, and Dexter Community Schools a strip on the Washtenaw County line that includes the Fox Run, Fidelio Vistas and Strawberry Woods subdivisions. Treasury’s 2025 homestead totals were 22.62 mills with Brighton, 27.25 with Pinckney and 31.58 with Dexter. On a home with $200,000 of taxable value, that is about $4,520, $5,450 and $6,320 a year.

Ask early, because both are common. More than 2,700 homes and businesses near the lakes connect to the Hamburg Township sanitary sewer, almost all through a grinder pump at the house, with gravity sewer only in the old Hamburg village and the Industrial Drive area. Since July 1, 2025 the user charge has been $171.00 a quarter in most districts and $105.00 in the Tamarack Lake system. Outside a sewer district the home has a septic system, and township ordinance requires a hookup within 400 feet of a sewer line if that system fails or needs a permitted repair. The 2025 schedule sets the tap-in fee at $7,500 for a property outside an existing assessment district.

Almost certainly. The township’s 2020 master plan says residents largely rely on individual wells, with public water reaching only eight businesses at the time, and it put the greatest need in the Hamburg village area. The county health department keeps well and septic records you can search by street address or parcel number, with current files from 2018 on and archived ones before that, and it recommends testing a well every year. It does not test or inspect at a sale, so order a water test inside your inspection period.

Only if the home is in FEMA’s high-risk zone and the loan is federally backed, and here that is a real question. About 8.5% of the township’s land is in that zone on maps effective since September 2008, mostly along the Huron River and the chain of lakes. Around Zukey and Strawberry lakes it covers more than two fifths of the land, and around Baseline and Gallagher lakes, Ore Lake and Bass Lake a fifth or more. FEMA’s October 2026 list puts Hamburg Township in Class 9 of its Community Rating System, a 5% discount on flood insurance policies. The township’s floodplain page still says Class 8, so ask the insurance agent which discount is applied.

Look for three kinds. On Gallagher, Long, Strawberry and Zukey lakes and along the Huron River, the township runs an aquatic weed control special assessment district, started in 2023 after Washtenaw County stopped treating those waters. Owners on many private roads pay for grading, dust control or paving through road districts billed on the December 1 winter tax bill, and the township does not require an assessment to be paid off at a sale, because it stays with the parcel. County drain assessments go to the current owner, even for work done before you bought. Ask the seller and the treasurer’s office, 810-231-1000, for any balance before you close.

For a homestead in Pinckney Community Schools, the township’s 2025 breakdown shows the summer bill carrying only the state education tax, the county’s operating levy and the administration fee. School debt, the Livingston ISD levy and the township’s police, fire and library millages all come on the winter bill, mailed December 1 and due February 14. Summer bills go out July 1 and are due September 14. If an escrow account pays your taxes, the mortgage company has to ask the treasurer for the bill by June 1 for summer and November 1 for winter, so confirm that request is on file after closing.

Redfin has no township page, so its ZIP code figures are the nearest read. For the three months ending September 2026 the median sale was about $460,000 in 48169, up about 12% on a year earlier with about 28 days to go under contract, about $453,000 in 48116 at about 21 days, and about $435,000 in 48189 at about 20 days. Each ZIP code takes in other townships, so treat those as direction. The Census owner median for the township, $384,700, is what owners estimated across 2020 to 2024, and the township assessor points to lake frontage as a large part of what land is worth here.

Communities near Hamburg Township

Livingston County overview

Guides for Hamburg Township buyers

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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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