The records behind the numbers
Figures on this site come from Oakland County parcel records matched to each city’s own published sales study, covering Farmington Hills from 2021 to 2026 and the City of Farmington for 2026. They use arm’s-length sales from January 2023 to March 2025, measured against current assessed and taxable values, at 2025 Michigan Treasury millage rates.
Nothing here uses multiple listing service data, private valuation estimates, or any source that is not a public record.
The group the headline figures describe
Of the homes that sold here since 2023, 178 screen as both over-assessed and uncapped. Those two conditions together are what make a difference reach a tax bill: an assessment can be too high without costing an owner anything while the cap is still absorbing it. Across those 178 homes:
Total overpayment
$243,762 / yr
Mean
$1,369
Median
$1,038
Middle halfTwenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentile
$748 – $1,546
Full rangeLowest and highest single home in the group
$168 – $9,093
Those 178 homes are about one in eleven of the homes sold here since 2023. The figures describe that group, and not every recent buyer. Most recent buyers have no case at all: of the 1,822 homes that sold here since January 2023, 52.6 percent are still protected by the cap and a further 38.6 percent are assessed in line with what they sold for.
What the figures are not
Every “tax on the gap” figure on this site is the tax on the difference between the city’s value and a recorded sale price. It is not a predicted refund and it is not a promised reduction.
“The purchase price paid in a transfer of property is not the presumptive true cash value of the property transferred.”
MCL 211.27(6)Because of that provision, a gap between an assessment and a sale price is a reason to look rather than a result. An appeal succeeds on the city’s own valuation method applied correctly to the property, which is a separate piece of work from the screen these figures come from.
Known limitations
- Homestead status is inferred. We infer it from whether the tax mailing address matches the property address. That is a good proxy and it is not a certainty, so per-home figures are estimates.
- Millage rates are prior-year. Figures use 2025 Michigan Treasury rates. Rates move a little each year and a current bill may differ slightly.
- Sale prices are as recorded. A recorded price may include or exclude concessions, and we cannot see the terms of a transaction from the record alone.
- The screen is not the analysis. These figures identify properties worth examining. They do not establish that any particular assessment is wrong.
Public sources used
- City of Farmington Hills residential sales studies, economic condition factor studies, the ECF area map, the land value atlas and the land ratio studies.
- City of Farmington 2026 sales study and supporting valuation studies.
- Oakland County open parcel data, covering roughly 490,000 parcels across 62 communities.
- Michigan Department of Treasury millage rate tables and State Tax Commission forms and bulletins.
- The Michigan General Property Tax Act, Public Act 206 of 1893, as amended.
If you want to check any figure on this site against its source, write to us and we will tell you exactly where it comes from.