Grand Traverse County, Michigan

Mortgage Broker in Peninsula Township, MI

Buying on the Old Mission Peninsula, from Huron Hills at the base to Bowers Harbor, Old Mission and Mission Point? Samantha compares wholesale lenders for your loan and checks what the parcel carries before you offer: a farmland easement, the bay's flood and erosion lines, the 30-day rental rule and the county's well and septic evaluation at sale.

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 Peninsula Township

Peninsula Township is a Grand Traverse County township that covers the Old Mission Peninsula, which runs about 17 miles north from Traverse City and divides Grand Traverse Bay into its east and west arms. Home to about 6,100 residents in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate, Peninsula Township is known for its cherry orchards and the wineries of the Old Mission Peninsula wine region, and Mission Point Light stands at its northern tip. The median household income here is near $137,800.

By the numbers

Peninsula Township housing and mortgage snapshot

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

$707,000

Typical home value, from the market research on this page

+72%

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

0.86%

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

1

Residential ZIP code: 49686

What financing looks like in Peninsula Township

Redfin's sold listings inside the township line show 77 sales from October 2025 through September 2026 with a median near $895,000: single-family houses near $1,000,000 across 61 sales and condos near $576,000 across 16. The three months from July through September ran higher, near $1,188,000 across 30 sales. The Census median owner value of $706,900, from the 2020 to 2024 survey, rests on owners' own estimates, and more than a quarter of owners put their home at $1 million or more. About half of those 77 sales closed above $832,750, the 2026 conforming limit. A jumbo turns on the loan amount rather than the price, so a larger down payment can keep a $1 million purchase conforming, while a jumbo asks for more reserves and documentation. About a third of the past year's condo sales came in under $541,287, the FHA limit for Grand Traverse County.

Second homes are common here. On the county's 2026 tax roll about 925 of the township's 3,408 residential parcels, roughly one in four, carry no principal residence exemption, and north of Bowers Harbor it is about four in ten. A second-home loan expects you to use the house yourself for part of the year and does not count rental income, and the township's zoning separately sets 30 days as the shortest rental of a home its owner does not live in, so nightly or weekly income cannot be part of the plan. A house sold with orchard or vineyard acreage, a recorded conservation easement or a long stretch of shoreline has few close comparable sales, so we order the appraisal early.

Most homes here run on a well and a septic system. The township's 2024 master plan puts about a third of residents on public water, bought in bulk from Traverse City, and about three in 10 on public sewer. Since January 1, 2026 Grand Traverse County has required a certified evaluation of the well and septic before a home within 300 feet of surface water is sold, and if a system fails, the owner or buyer escrows one and a half times the estimated repair cost at closing. For a buyer with a low or moderate income, MI 10K is a $10,000 down payment loan, repaid when you sell, refinance, pay off the mortgage or stop living in the home, paired with a MSHDA MI Home Loan whose $566,355 price cap is lower than about four in five of the past year's sale prices here, so it fits mainly the smaller condos.

Talk with Samantha Compare loan options

About one residential parcel in four on the peninsula is taxed at the non-homestead rate, 45.25 mills in 2025 and 18 more than a home its owner lives in, and township zoning bars renting any home its owner does not live in for less than 30 days.

The market

The Peninsula Township housing market

The typical home value in Peninsula Township is near $706,900, the median for owner-occupied homes in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which counts about 2,600 owner-occupied homes here. The median year built is 1990, and Peninsula Township is mostly larger homes, many of them waterfront homes or homes with bay views, along with farmland and orchards. Homeowners pay a median of about $6,080 a year in property taxes, an effective property tax rate of about 0.86% of the median value.

Land rules

Farmland, shoreline and the lines on the map

Much of what a peninsula parcel can become is set by recorded easements, zoning and state shoreline maps rather than by the house. Figures come from township ordinances, the county's 2026 tax roll, EGLE and our sample of FEMA's map.

Preserved farmland

Voters created the township's purchase of development rights program in 1994, which by the American Farmland Trust's account made it the first Midwestern community to tax itself for farm development rights. They renewed it in 2022 at 2 mills through the 2041 levy, 2,068 votes to 937. By 2022 it had protected 3,291 acres, and with other easements about a third of the township's land had some protection. A preserved farm keeps its fields and orchards but not the right to build beyond what its easement reserves.

A-1 Agricultural, about two thirds of the acreage

About 11,400 of the roughly 17,000 acres on the county tax roll are zoned A-1. A new lot there needs at least 5 acres, 330 feet of frontage on a public road and room for a 210-foot square, and a new metes and bounds parcel beside working A-1 land keeps a 50-foot strip along that line free of accessory buildings. Farm processing and farm stands have their own amendments.

The shoreline

The township counts about 42 miles of Great Lakes shoreline. A house must stand at least 60 feet from the ordinary high-water mark, 581 feet above sea level, and in the 35-foot strip along the water no more than 30% of the frontage may be clear cut, with no opening wider than 30 feet per 100. Each 50 feet of shoreline allows one dock and one boat hoist.

High-risk erosion areas

EGLE designated two in 1993: Area A1, 21 parcels on Bowers Harbor along Ne-Ah-Ta-Wanta Road, receding about 1.2 feet a year, and Area B1, 3 parcels on Old Mission Harbor at about 1 foot a year. New structures there need a state permit and a setback from the erosion hazard line, 45 to 50 feet for a movable building and 75 to 85 feet for a larger structure or a septic system, and the designation runs with the land.

FEMA's coastal zone

In our sample of the map effective April 19, 2023, about 2.3% of the township's dry land is in the high-risk zone, all of it along the bay and about seven tenths of it the VE wave zone, with base flood elevations from 584 to 593 feet. Close to 1,000 residential parcels touch it somewhere, most only at the beach, so the lender's determination turns on where the house stands.

Residential districts

Outside A-1, minimum lots run one acre in R-1A, 25,000 square feet in the R-1B coastal zone and 20,000 in R-1C. Every district caps buildings at 38 feet, now measured from the average natural grade, and the township is rewriting the whole ordinance, first adopted in 1972, with a draft dated July 20, 2026.

Where to look

Peninsula Township neighborhoods

Peninsula Drive and Huron Hills

The south end west of Center Road, from the Traverse City line along Peninsula Drive and West Bay up to about McKinley Road, with Huron Hills Drive, Mathison Road and Franklin Woods Park. The township's 500,000-gallon water storage tank stands on Center Road near Mathison Road. The Census block group that covers this end puts the owner median near $754,800, a figure with a wide margin, and the typical home in 1989. The county tax roll counts about 610 residential parcels here, some 170 of them condos, on a median lot of about six tenths of an acre.

East Shore Road and Pelizzari Natural Area

East of Center Road at the base, along East Shore Road and East Bay around Hidden Ridge and the Pelizzari Natural Area, which the township has owned since July 2009. About half of the roughly 470 residential parcels here are condos. This block group runs south into the city's Base of Old Mission neighborhood, which holds about half its homes, so its figures describe both sides of the line: an owner median near $456,200 with a narrow margin, a typical home from 1981 and about one home in five attached.

McKinley Road to Wilson Road

The stretch north of McKinley Road to Wilson Road on both shores, with Underwood Ridge, Peninsula Hills Drive, Bay East Drive and the East Grand Traverse Bay access site. About 280 residential parcels, some 65 of them condos, sit on lots near six tenths of an acre, yet nearly half the parcel acreage is zoned agricultural. It shares the base's block group, with an owner median near $754,800, a wide margin and a typical home from 1989. About 70 of its residential parcels reach into FEMA's coastal high-risk zone.

Archie Park, Montague Road and Gray Road

Around Archie Park on Center Road, Montague Road, Rolling Ridge Drive and Gray Road, with homes facing both bays. About 300 residential parcels, none of them condos, sit on lots near nine tenths of an acre, and a little over half the acreage is zoned agricultural. About 50 of its residential parcels are flagged on the county's map for a well and septic evaluation at sale. The block group, which runs up the west side to Bowers Harbor, puts owner values near $739,300 with a wide margin and the typical home in 1986.

Island View Road and the township hall

The west side from Gray Road north to Bowers Harbor, along Peninsula Drive, Nelson Road, Island View Road and Hedeen Drive, with the township hall at 13235 Center Road and Power Island offshore in West Bay. About three quarters of the acreage is zoned agricultural, yet about 370 residential parcels line the shore and the side roads, and about 83% of them claim the principal residence exemption, the highest share of any area on this list. Block group figures: owner median near $739,300, wide margin, typical home 1986.

Bluff Road and the East Bay shore

The east side from Gray Road north toward Mapleton, where Bluff Road follows East Bay, with Ojibwa Trail, Carroll Road, Blue Water Road and Twin Eagles Drive. This stretch has more residential parcels flagged for the county's well and septic evaluation at sale than any other on this list, about 67, and about 117 residential parcels that reach into FEMA's coastal high-risk zone. About 350 residential parcels in all, some 75 of them condos, sit on lots near an acre. The block group puts owner values near $731,800, with a wide margin, and the typical home in 1994.

Bowers Harbor and Neahtawanta

Around Bowers Harbor on the west side, along Ne-Ah-Ta-Wanta Road, Shipman Road and Devils Dive Road, with Bowers Harbor Park, its 60-acre natural area addition and the Pyatt Lake preserve. EGLE designated 21 parcels on the harbor shore as a high-risk erosion area in 1993, receding about 1.2 feet a year. Only about 55% of the roughly 230 residential parcels here claim the principal residence exemption. The block group, which runs north to Mission Point, has the highest owner median on the peninsula, near $1,028,400 with a very wide margin, and a typical home from 2000.

Mapleton and Seven Hills Road

The east side north of Bowers Harbor Road, around the hamlet of Mapleton, Seven Hills Road, Mapleton Lane and Mallard Drive North, with the Chateau Chantal winery on Rue de Vin. About 72% of the acreage is zoned agricultural, and residential lots run larger, with a median near 1.6 acres. About 275 residential parcels, some 67 condos among them, and about four in ten without the principal residence exemption. It belongs to the east-side block group: owner median near $731,800, wide margin, typical home 1994.

Kroupa Road and Birch Drive

Inland and along the west shore north of Bowers Harbor, on South Kroupa Road, Dunn Drive, Birch Drive, Phelps Road and Wunsch Road. Farmland dominates: about 81% of the acreage is zoned agricultural and only about 115 residential parcels sit here, on lots near 1.3 acres. Taxable value on those homes averages about 45% of state equalized value, so a sale here can lift the next owner's bill by more than the township's typical reset. The block group's owner median is near $1,028,400 with a very wide margin, and its typical home dates from 2000.

Smokey Hollow Road toward Old Mission

The east side from Chateau Chantal north toward Old Mission, along Smokey Hollow Road, Willow Way and Wrightwood Terrace Drive, past the Ogdensburg cemetery. About 87% of the acreage is zoned agricultural, and about 130 residential parcels sit among the farms, two thirds of them claiming the principal residence exemption. It falls in the east-side block group, with an owner median near $731,800, a wide margin and a typical home from 1994.

Old Mission and Haserot Beach

The village of Old Mission on Old Mission Harbor, with the general store on Mission Road, Haserot Beach on Swaney Road, which the township calls the peninsula's only improved public beach access, Kelley Park and the Dougherty Mission House from 1842. Fewer than half of the roughly 210 residential parcels claim the principal residence exemption, the lowest share on this list, and taxable value averages about 43% of state equalized value. Three parcels on the harbor east of the beach sit in a 1993 high-risk erosion area. Block group figures: owner median near $1,028,400, very wide margin, typical home 2000.

Mission Point and the lighthouse

The tip of the peninsula, along Brinkman, Tompkins and Ridgewood roads to Mission Point Light, where Center Road ends in a loop near the 45th parallel. About 96% of the parcel acreage is zoned agricultural, around the lighthouse park, the Old Mission Point State Park trailheads and the Brinkman Bog sanctuary. Only about 60 residential parcels sit here, on lots near 1.6 acres. The block group's owner median is near $1,028,400 with a very wide margin, and the Census counts close to three in ten of its homes as seasonal.

Schools and commute

Schools

Traverse City Area Public Schools serves all of Peninsula Township: every parcel on the county's 2026 tax roll that names a school district names TCAPS, and our sample of the Census school district map puts all of the township's land inside it. The district covers about 300 square miles. On a 2025 Peninsula Township bill TCAPS levied 3.1 mills for debt on every home and 18 mills of operating tax only on homes without the principal residence exemption, which is the entire gap between the township's 27.25-mill homestead and 45.25-mill non-homestead totals. Northwest Education Services, the intermediate district, adds about 2.86 mills and Northwestern Michigan College about 2.01. School assignments can change, so confirm the attendance area for an address on the district's boundary map.

Commute

Center Road, which is M-37, is the peninsula's only state highway and its spine, running about 17 miles from the Traverse City line to its end at Mission Point Light. Peninsula Drive follows much of the West Bay side, and East Shore Road and Bluff Road follow East Bay. From the township hall at 13235 Center Road, OSRM routing without traffic puts the Governmental Center downtown about 10.7 miles away (17 minutes), Northwestern Michigan College 10.3 (17), Munson Medical Center 12.0 (20) and Cherry Capital Airport 11.5 (20). Old Mission is 5.7 miles (8) north, Grand Traverse Resort in Acme 15.5 (26), Interlochen Center for the Arts 24.4 (38), Cadillac 55.3 (77) and downtown Grand Rapids about 149 miles, near 2 hours 50 minutes. Munson, with about 7,500 jobs, accounted for roughly one county job in seven in Grand Traverse County's 2024 financial report. Census estimates show nearly a third of working residents work from home, and about six in ten of those who commute get there in under 20 minutes. The county's winter parking ordinance bans parking on road shoulders from midnight to 8 a.m., December 1 through March 31.

Michigan property taxes

Peninsula 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 Peninsula Township, our 2026 Uncapping Study found taxable value typically rises about 72% the year after a sale. On a $700,000 home, near the typical Peninsula Township value, that is roughly $3,990 more in first-year tax at the local median homestead millage. We build your payment on that post-sale number.

Looking at a Peninsula 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 millage

Where a Peninsula Township tax bill goes

Grand Traverse County's 2025 apportionment report, homestead rates with the fire special assessment included, 27.25 mills in all. One mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value.

Township levies: about 5.34 mills

0.59 mills for operations, about 2.15 voted mills, most of them for the farmland program, and a 2.60-mill fire assessment charged on real property only. The farmland fund collected about $2.09 million in the township's 2025 to 2026 fiscal year.

Schools and college: about 13.97 mills

The 6-mill State Education Tax, the 3.1-mill TCAPS debt levy, about 2.86 mills for Northwest Education Services and about 2.01 for Northwestern Michigan College.

County, library and transit: about 7.94 mills

About 6.39 mills of county levies, 1.08 for the Traverse Area library levy and 0.47 for BATA, the regional bus system.

Second home or rental: 45.25 mills

The non-homestead total adds the 18-mill TCAPS operating levy, which the principal residence exemption removes from a home its owner lives in.

Next door: 26.69 to 37.07 mills

Garfield Charter Township 26.69, East Bay Charter Township 26.79 and the TCAPS part of Acme Township 26.82, against 37.07 in the City of Traverse City. Peninsula's 27.25 sits a little above the townships and almost 10 below the city.

When the bills come due

Summer taxes are due by September 14 and winter taxes by February 14, per the township treasurer. On a homestead about 18.04 mills fall on the summer bill and 9.21 on the winter one. Water and sewer special assessments are billed separately each July 1.

Local resources

Check Peninsula Township records yourself

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

Peninsula Township Assessing, for parcel records and current taxable value
Traverse City Area Public Schools, for district boundaries and enrollment
Grand Traverse County Equalization, for county property tax records

Due diligence

What to settle on a Peninsula Township house before closing

Most of these take a phone call or a document request during the inspection period.

Any conservation easement. Ask the title company for every recorded easement and read its building and division limits before you offer. The township's Purchase of Development Rights page carries the program's applications and meetings, the original Ordinance 23 sets the one-home-per-20-acres limit on reserved sites, and recorded easements sit with the Grand Traverse County Register of Deeds.
The time of transfer map. The county's Time of Transfer Evaluations page shows how to turn on the layer in its parcel viewer, and the regulation lists the exemptions. Settle in the purchase agreement who orders the evaluation and who pays for any repair.
Rental and building plans. Read the township's rental section and its zoning ordinance rewrite page before you count on rent, an accessory dwelling or an addition.
The flood determination. Look the address up in FEMA's Flood Map Service Center. On a lot that reaches the beach, an elevation certificate can show whether the house itself sits above the base flood elevation.
Erosion areas. On Bowers Harbor and Old Mission Harbor, check EGLE's high-risk erosion area maps before you plan an addition or a new septic field.
Water, sewer and special assessments. The township treasurer bills water and sewer assessments every July 1, charges 1% a month after September 14 and adds any balance left on November 1 to the winter bill. A new owner can take over the balance, but your lender or title company may want it paid at closing.
The winery case. The township posts every filing in the WOMP lawsuit on its website. Check where the appeal stands before you settle on a tax budget.
Power and heat.Traverse City Light and Power serves part of the township, so ask which utility serves the house and whether it has natural gas. The Census counts about one occupied home in 14 here heating with bottled or tank gas.

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.

Peninsula Township mortgage questions

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

Is a Traverse City 49686 address inside the city?

Not on the peninsula. Street addresses in Peninsula Township read Traverse City, MI 49686: on the county’s 2026 tax roll all but one of the township’s 4,359 parcels with a site address use it, and the Census puts all of the township’s land in the 49686 ZIP area. The township, not the city, zones the land and collects the taxes, and its 2025 homestead rate of 27.25 mills ran about 9.8 below the city’s 37.07.

How much more tax does a second home pay?

In 2025 a home that was not its owner’s principal residence paid 45.25 mills in Peninsula Township against 27.25 for one that was. The 18-mill gap is the school operating tax that the principal residence exemption removes, and 18 mills comes to $1,800 a year for every $100,000 of taxable value. If you will live in the house, file the exemption affidavit, Michigan Form 2368, with the township assessor. If it will be a second home, budget at the higher rate and for the reset in taxable value the year after you buy.

Can I rent the house by the night or the week?

No. Peninsula Township’s zoning ordinance lets an owner rent a home they do not live in only for 30 days or more, a minimum the Zoning Board of Appeals set in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2008. The draft rewrite of the ordinance dated July 20, 2026 keeps the 30-day minimum, adds a ban on advertising shorter stays and would allow accessory dwelling units, with a detached unit capped at 800 square feet, and the Planning Commission has a public hearing set for November 9, 2026. A lender treats a home rented by the month as an investment property, and a second-home loan cannot count rent at all.

What comes with a farm parcel whose development rights were sold?

A recorded conservation easement that runs with the land permanently. Under the township’s Purchase of Development Rights ordinance, adopted in 1994, the seller gave up the right to develop except as the easement reserves, and reserved home sites cannot exceed one dwelling per 20 acres. A reserved site can be split off on a parcel of at least one acre, reached by a driveway, or by a private road once it serves three or more homes. Changing an easement is rare by design: it takes an application, a public hearing with notice to owners within 1,320 feet, an appraisal paid by the owner, a payment to the program for any value gained and a possible referendum. The township monitors its easements each year, so read the easement in the title commitment before you offer.

Will the well and septic need an inspection before closing?

If the house is within 300 feet of the bay, a lake or a stream, almost certainly. Since January 1, 2026 Grand Traverse County has required an evaluation by a county-certified evaluator, approved by the health department, before such a home changes hands. On the county’s map about 355 of the township’s roughly 2,800 houses are marked as requiring one, and about 950 more say to call the health department to verify. The review fee is $300 for a well and septic together. If a system fails, the owner or buyer escrows one and a half times the repair estimate at closing and has 180 days after the corrective plan is approved to finish, weather permitting. A system the county approved within the previous 36 months is exempt.

Do I need flood insurance on a bayfront lot?

Most mortgages require it when the house itself sits in FEMA’s high-risk zone, so check every shoreline address. On this peninsula the zone is a coastal strip, mostly VE, where waves add to the flooding, with base flood elevations of 584 to 593 feet. In our sample of the April 2023 map it covers about 2% of the dry land, yet close to 1,000 of the township’s residential parcels reach into it somewhere, usually along the beach. When FEMA finalized that map in October 2022 it counted only six flood insurance policies in the whole township, and the township is not on FEMA’s October 2026 list of communities whose policyholders get a discount, so ask an agent for a quote early.

Could the winery lawsuit change Peninsula Township taxes?

No one can say yet, but it belongs on your list. In July 2025 a federal judge awarded the Wineries of the Old Mission Peninsula about $49 million in damages against the township over its winery zoning rules. The township appealed to the Sixth Circuit, and in March 2026 the court stayed collection without a bond while the appeal runs, noting that the township’s yearly revenues are around $10 million. Michigan law, MCL 600.6093, provides for an unpaid judgment against a township to be assessed on its next tax roll, though a settlement, insurance or the appeal could change the outcome. The township posts the court filings on its website.

Who plows Center Road and the side roads in winter?

The Grand Traverse County Road Commission, which also handles routine maintenance on state highways in the county under agreement with MDOT. Its posted snow and ice plan puts Center Road, M-37, north of Peninsula Drive in the second state highway tier: plowed continuously until the center is generally bare, with full-width clearing during working hours. Peninsula Drive up to Bowers Harbor Road, Bowers Harbor Road and Island View Road are second-priority county roads, kept passable as much of the time as possible. Subdivision roads are kept passable during normal hours, with overtime plowing once snow passes 6 inches.

Communities near Peninsula Township

Additional Michigan Cities

Guides for Peninsula Township buyers

Browse the Learn Center

Loan options

See every loan option

Talk with a local mortgage expert

Tell Samantha what you are trying to do in Peninsula 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.