When people talk about Rochester Hills, Michigan, you’ll often hear glowing reviews about its top-ranked schools, picturesque parks, and safe neighborhoods. But like any other place, there's more to this suburban paradise than meets the eye. Is Rochester Hills really the perfect blend of family-friendly charm and modern convenience, or is it hiding some serious drawbacks behind that perfectly manicured exterior? We are going to take a deep dive into the reality of living in Rochester Hills Michigan. From the schools, economy, cost of living, home prices, property taxes (everyone’s favorite topic right?), and what current and former residents have to say. Let’s expose Rochester Hills Michigan shall we.
Living in Rochester Hills Michigan
Before I slide into the nitty gritty of this, For those of you that don’t know, Rochester and Rochester Hills are two separate places, and I have done a video on Rochester already that I will link: Rochester Michigan home price video, Living In Rochester Michigan good and bad video, and the Buying a home in Rochester Hills Michigan video. Rochester is the little downtown area that’s less than 4 square miles in size, whereas Rochester hills is 32.90 square miles with a population of around 76,000 people.Â
Rochester, Michigan:

Rochester Hills, Michigan:

Living In Rochester Hills Michigan
Rochester Hills Michigan History
After the war in 1812, settlers ventured on over to the Detroit area, and in 1817, the first settlers arrived in Rochester Hills Michigan, which was known as Avon Township at the time. The nearby Clinton River and Paint Creek allowed the Mills to be water powered and by the year 1850 the family farms were essentially self sufficient, the area provided wool for clothing, lumber for houses, stores and schools emerged, and fast forward to 1984, the area was renamed Rochester Hills because of the historical roots in Rochester and the landscape in the region. Jumping to present time, The first thing I want to lean into is the location of Rochester Hills Michigan. Being 25+ miles north of downtown Detroit, 11 miles from the Woodward corridor communities, such as: Birmingham, Bloomfield hills, and royal oak, while being 60+ miles from the sought after Ann Arbor.
Some would argue this community is borderline on the northern outskirts of metro Detroit and doesn’t have that centralized luxury like several other very nice communities throughout southeast Michigan. The argument for some people would be, is it too far out there to spend top dollar on homes? And those prices are something i’ll talk about a little later of course, but it’s something I have thought about myself while looking for a personal residence.
Do You Think Rochester/Rochester Hills Michigan is "too far out"? (Comment below your thoughts!)

You’re far enough from the hustle and bustle, but the area has a traffic problem of its own, but it’s also near everything you could ever need and more from the shopping and downtown opportunities of Auburn Hills and Rochester, to being near the top automotive employers in the world. There’s pros and cons here, and compromises that need to be made, but when it came down to weighing more centralized communities to better my commute or being in an area like Rochester Hills, I would lean into Rochester Hills.
I may be a little bias here, but being someone who Grew up in Brighton, spending my whole life near I-96 and driving up 696, I would rather face the traffic that comes with I-75 and the M-59 corridor than to drive anymore on the interstates near where I grew up, especially as of recording this and it being a construction nightmare. I am curious however what everyone’s thoughts are about the location and traffic aspect versus a community like Rochester Hills in Northern Metro Detroit, and a community like Novi or Farmington near the I-696 interchange.Â
Living In Rochester Hills Michigan
Rochester Hills Michigan Things To Do & Offerings
The next aspect I want to chat about are things to do and offerings. This aspect is what makes the last point about location a tough choice in regard to other centralized communities, because yes it is fairly north compared to all the happenings in Metro Detroit, but there’s also so much in the area to take advantage of too. You have the Great Lakes crossing mall in Auburn Hills, you have Oakland University, Meadow Brook theater, Paint creek trail, Clinton river trail, Yates cider mill, which has already been attended by me this fall season, Innovation hills park, the village of Rochester Hills, the farmers markets, downtown Rochester nearby, and I am really just scratching the surface. All that just to say, you don’t need to go far for variety, everything is very close by and convenient and that’s something to chalk up as a pro when looking into Rochester Hills Michigan.
Living In Rochester Hills Michigan
Rochester Hills Michigan Schools
Another point that gets people calling Rochester Hills Michigan home is the education. The Rochester Hills community is served by two districts: Rochester which is on the northern end and Avondale which is on the southern end, and I will put some school district maps in the description so you’re able to see where the boundary lines are, and as I always say, where you end up in a school districts affects how much money you will pay in taxes and I will touch on that more later of course.
Between the two school districts, Rochester is ranked higher, being a 19 to 1 student to teacher ratio, with 22 schools, with over 15,000 students. Avondale schools has a 16 to 1 ratio with 9 schools and around 4,000 students.

Niche.com ranks Rochester schools the #7 of 539 best school districts in Michigan, #14 of 517 districts with the best teachers in Michigan and #19 of 482 best school districts for athletes in Michigan with an overall grade of an A+ based on individual grades for academics, teachers, clubs and activities, sports, resources and facilities, diversity, college prep and food.

Avondale schools on the other hand rank a B- by Niche.com and are ranked #14 of 522 most diverse school districts in Michigan, and #251 of 517 districts with the best teachers in Michigan.
Rochester Hills Michigan Cost of Living
Rochester Hills Michigan Cost of Living
Rochester Hills Michigan Property Taxes
In terms of how these districts affect your property taxes, the Avondale school district comes in at a millage rate (rate used to calculate property taxes) of 34.9699, whereas the Rochester school district comes in at 30.0929.

To better understand how that affects your taxes, I want to bring up the average sale price in Rochester Hills brought to you by this lovely graph provided by the MLS that shows the whole MLS in blue, Rochester hills in green and the city of Rochester in yellow. As you can see the home prices in comparison to the MLS as a whole is over $200,000 more, and the cost to live in Rochester compared to Rochester Hills is right around an $80,000 difference on average. So looking at that $455,218 figure, we would divide that by 2 making it $227,609 which would be 50% of a list price if you were to do the calculation yourself, multiply it by the millage rate of 34.9699 in Avondale and divide it by 1,000 making it an annual estimated tax amount of $7,959.46, where as the school district of Rochester when multiplied by that millage rate of 30.0929 would come out to be $6,849.41. If you were able to find a home in each school district for the same price.Â
Rochester Hills Michigan Cost of Living
Rochester Hills Michigan Home Prices
I thought with that, i’d be able to transition just fine into the cost of living, specifically the home prices. As that chart showed, Rochester Hills is quite a bit more than the whole MLS on average, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t possibilities here in every price range. As of recording this, there are 765 sold homes, mobile homes and condos ranging from a $21,000 mobile home in Rochester Estates Mobile home park to a $2.25 million dollar colonial built in 2022. With the average price being around $450,000.
I wanted to show you a home for $450,000, a home for $650,000, $850,000, and over one million just to give you a visual (sorry for those listening instead of watching) of what you can get for your money in Rochester Hills Michigan.
Rochester Hills Michigan Home For Sale #1 ($450,000)

The home for $450,000 is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch on a corner lot with 1,700 finished square feet with an unfinished basement, with a 2 car attached garage, situated on 0.26 acres and built in 0.26.
Rochester Hills Michigan Home For Sale #2 ($650,000)

The colonial for $650,000 has 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 4,985 total finished square feet with 200 more unfinished square feet in the basement, with a creek water feature in the yard, situated on 0.26 actress, with a 2 car garage and built in 1987.
Rochester Hills Michigan Home For Sale #3 ($850,000)

Jumping to the home for $850,000, this home is a 4 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom colonial with over 5,100 total finished square feet, with a 3 car attached garage situated on 0.27 acres and built in 1991.
Rochester Hills Michigan Home For Sale #4 ($1,000,000+)

Last but not least we have a corner lot colonial for $1,078,900 with 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 3,200 square feet, with an unfinished basement with over 1500 square feet, with a 3 car attached garage, built in 2023 and situated on 0.51 acres.Â
Living In Rochester Hills Michigan
Rochester Hills Michigan Economy
With all these things in mind: location, offerings, education, home prices, and property taxes, what does the outlook of the economy look like? Well, of course I don’t have a crystal ball to say it won't be overrun by zombies tomorrow, but we can take a look at some of the finer details to see the direction the local economy is headed. The city of Rochester hills implemented a master plan in 2018, that covers their plans for the next 20 years to 2038, which seems so far away, but sadly will be here before we know it.
The theme of this master plan put emphasis on 4 themes: Improve Community Health, Create an Age-Friendly Community, Improve Community Sustainability and Improve Transportation Choices, while their goals remain to preserve, enhance and diversify the community.
Although population growth isn’t a direct economic indicator to the Rochester Hills future, I believe it does prove the aspect of desirability, in this case from the year 2010 to 2015, Rochester Hills population increased 2.3% which was true for Oakland county as well, as one of Michigan's fastest growing counties. Although this data is dated compared to how much the pandemic has skewed a lot of these figures, the focus is on health, community, sustainability and transportation. The population did however increase nearly 3,500 people from 2015 to 2024. They have an in-depth understanding that their pros are trails, parks, schools, natural beauty, and diversity, whereas their cons are traffic, affordable housing options, transportation, lack of downtown and community engagement.
This 153 page masterplan dives deep into the plan of action to satisfy the cons they are very much aware of, and seem to be the biggest complaints from current and past residents. The city created a master plan survey that over 700 people responded to and overall, people are satisfied with the quality of life in the city with around 35% saying excellent and over 55% saying above average, whereas the rest stated it was average or below average. This survey outlined major challenges, city appearances, development, walkability and transportation, environmental issues, qualities of the community, natural features, housing, and redevelopment.
What has been exposed of Rochester Hills Michigan is despite the location being in the northern side of metro Detroit, heavier traffic as the population continues to increase, and higher home prices, the area still holds a lot of qualities that can’t be overlooked, as the community is ensuring they keep a grip on preserving, enhancing, and diversifying the community as a whole.
For those of you reading, is a community you’d live in, why or why not? And for those of you that live in the area, what are your thoughts?Â
If you’re thinking about moving to Michigan in 1 day or a million, feel free to reach out anytime, I also have a link to the Living in Michigan newsletter to give you insight on all things Michigan, so be sure to subscribe so you never miss out! Thanks for reading, until next time.
Cheers,
Andrew

Andrew McManamon is a Michigan REALTOR® with Signature Sotheby’s International Realty and provides real estate services to Buyers, Sellers and Investors throughout SE Michigan including Livingston County, Oakland County, Washtenaw County, Genesee County & beyond. Andrew has become one of the pillars of Michigan real estate. Prior to his real estate career Andrew was responsible for managing a senior living facility in Brighton, Michigan as a dining supervisor and an activities assistant. Andrew’s passion to help people is unlike any other, and he continues to strive to be the best resource he can be. Andrew graduated from Cleary University in Howell, Michigan with a double major in business and marketing, and currently resides in Brighton, Michigan.
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