So you’re thinking about making the move to Whitmore Lake, Michigan? Probably not, or your one of the few people that actually know about it, either way, you’re about to learn a thing or two, and this is worth sticking around for.
For those of you that don’t know, Whitmore Lake, Michigan isn’t just a lake somewhere in Metro Detroit, it’s actually an unincorporated community between Brighton and Ann Arbor, that’s just over 6 square miles in size with a population of under 8,000 people, and when you try to look up information about it, there’s not a lot going on, so as someone who has grown up near there, listed and sold houses in the community, and have friends near and on Whitmore Lake, I figured I could give you an idea what this area is all about. Oh and if you’re new here, my name is Andrew McManamon, with living in Michigan, a licensed realtor in the fine mitten state and i’ve helped people all over the world move to a from here, so if you ever need anything, just let me know.
What About Whitmore Lake Michigan?
If you’ve done some loose research on the area you might be wondering, Is it as serene as it sounds? Will you find the perfect balance of nature and convenience? Or will you be spending your days battling traffic and searching for something, anything, to do on a Friday night? I’m going to answer all those questions and more, as well as tackle the good and bad about living in Whitmore lake Michigan as well.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Location
Kicking off with the good things about Whitmore lake Michigan, and you may be able to guess it already, it’s location. I mean it’s extremely underrated, let's be honest. Imagine being dead center between Brighton and Ann Arbor, where you can go 10 or so miles north to Brighton and 12-15 miles south to Ann Arbor. I have several videos about these two areas that I will link in description as well, but the beauty of this is, you get the amenities of both areas without living in one area over another. You can get that night out on the town and that feeling of a downsized metro area with Ann Arbor, but you can also go to the small town of Brighton where the atmosphere is completely opposite if you aren’t feeling as frisky. On top of that you also have public access to Whitmore lake with just a recreational pass under Michigan’s DNR which is an awesome bonus because no matter where you are in Whitmore lake, you will always be a stone’s throw from the lake itself. But like I have talked about in lake communities, is they don’t really have a downtown space since the community aspect is just the relationships built around the lake, BUT Whitmore lake has a downtown too.
Whitmore Lake Michigan "Downtown"
Which brings us into the next good thing and that’s the downtown, and if you’re someone who lives in Whitmore lake watching right now, you might be thinking that’s a stretch, what downtown and I hear you, but there is quite a few offerings that solidify the community aspect we all want to lean more on these days. For example, looking at an image of the lake overhead, southwest of the lake, there is main street that goes along the lake, all the way up until the road ends into residential living on a canal. From the south side of main street to the most northern end of the street, you’ll pass, a nursing home, the fire department, apartments, self storage, Whitmore lanes (a bowling ally) went there a few times in my day actually, a cannabis store, a small market, Marcos pizza, a salon, a memorabilia store, a community park, the Whitmore lake tavern, a gas station, auto part place, captain joes grill, then some hotels and a boat ramp.
It’s not a wild variety by any means, but when I think lake communities, I think about that boutique liquor store that sits at the end of the road or beginning of the community that sorta kinda carries everything but a bottle of ketchup is like $10.I can see some of you shaking your heads in agreement. Despite having a few offerings, it’s still only 10 minutes away from the Green Oak Village place in Brighton, but it’s just a few seconds it seems like from M-36, which if you watched my Pinckney Michigan video you’d be familiar with this, but there’s also an extension of offerings there from stores and restaurants to gas stations, future ball paintball and garden centers.
Whitmore Lake Michigan
The next pro is the lake itself. Just a little backstory about the actual lake that is the heart of this community, called Whitmore lake. It’s 667 acres in size, just under 70 feet deep, and sits in two counties, the northern chunk of the lake is in the southeast corner of Livingston county in Green Oak township, and the southern chunk of the lake is in northern Washtenaw county in Northfield township. Which is important to note as I touch on some further points. Whitmore lake actually doesn’t have an outlet or a natural inlet, and the Washtenaw drain commission pumps water into the lake from the nearby horseshoe lake outlet. It’s an all sports lake of course, and filled with bluegills, sunfish, largemouth bass, perch, smallmouth, some crappie, pike and there was actually a tiger musky reported in a 1992 survey as well. Just for all you fishing folks out there, this lake tends to be “predator poor” which means a lot of the smaller species of fish can actually grow larger. The public access of course allows you to all that kayaking, swimming, canoeing, and other watersports too. Everybody loves a lake community, lets be honest.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Home Prices
Switching gears to the next pro, I want to touch on home prices, property taxes and give you a sense of where the home prices and property taxes are most expensive and least expensive and how the schools play a role as well.
First and foremost, like I mentioned, Whitmore lake is cut in half horizontally almost with Livingston county being on the northern chunk and Washtenaw county being on the southern chunk. So with that in mind, taking a look at this graph provided by the multiple listing service, it shows green oak township in yellow, Northfield township in green and the Whitmore lake school district in blue, and the reason that is included is if you do try to do a home search on the MLS or do the property tax calculations, Whitmore lake won’t be on there because it is an unincorporated community, so instead, you use Northfield twp and green oak township to calculate the taxes depending if you’re looking the north or south side.
This graph is the average sale price over the last 3 years and you can see how the Whitmore Lake school district is just under $380,000, Northfield twp is just over $426,000 and green oak township is just over $455,000. Keep in mind Green oak township is 36.7 square miles in size and covers a good chunk of Brighton, so that’s they the price tag is higher, and Northfield township also is over 36 square miles covering portions of South Lyon and ann arbor as well.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Housing Inventory
As of recording this there are 60 results for homes that are active, pending and sold in the Whitmore lake area, ranging from a $45,000 manufactured home in the Northfield estates mobile home community with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,568 square feet and built in 1987 but remodeled in 2023. This community is located just west of US-23 and the lake.
and up to a $995,000 craftsman style home located south of Whitmore Lake on all sports horseshoe lake with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 4,000 total square feet, built just 2 years ago with a 5 car garage and situated on 0.18 acres.
Over the last 60 days there are 3 active homes, one being the one just under a million dollars and the other 2 are situated on Whitmore Lake, one is active for $455,000 and the other sold on the opposite side of the lake for $430,000, which in today's market is not bad for a lake home unfortunately. And you might be thinking, well it’s a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom cottage that couldn’t fit my things, let alone someone else's, and actually that’s why the home prices in Whitmore Lake are a pro on this list because these are 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom homes, with over 1500 square feet, a 2 car garage, and situated on about a quarter acre with 37 feet of water frontage.
This home doesn’t have to be just for weekend getaways, you can live in it full time. With that being said, I wanted to show you this map of homes actively sold and pending over the last 3 years that are waterfront on Whitmore lake. As you can see the prices range quite a bit as I hover over them, but not too much from north, south, east and west.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Property Taxes
So how does property taxes and schools play a role in all this? Well, let’s just say the people on the northern end of the lake are paying less in taxes AND they have the ability to go to Brighton area schools which are among the top ranked in the area. On the north side of the lake you can go to Brighton, Whitmore lake, or south lyon schools. On the south side you can go to Dexter, Ann Arbor, South lyon, or Whitmore lake schools. Living in Washtenaw county on the southside averages a millage rate (a rate to calculate property taxes of 33 to 41 mills), Livingston county on the other hand on the north side has millage rates ranging from 28 to 33 mills, which may not seem like a lot BUT in a world full of costs, savings is nice. What’s the perfect scenario? Living on the north side in Green Oak twp and going to Brighton area schools since the millage rate is the lowest of all of them at 28.1613, but what’s the worst case scenario? Living in Northfield Township and going to Whitmore Lake schools since the millage rate is 41.3278, but keep in mind, it depends on the home price too since Green oak has cheaper taxes but more expensive homes, while Northfield twp has higher taxes but least expensive homes.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Notable Rankings
Some other notable rankings for Whitmore Lake Michigan from niche.com data. The area ranks #15 bets places to raise a family in Washtenaw county, #98 of 336 suburbs with the best public schools in Michigan, #105 of 338 best suburbs for young professionals in Michigan and #132 of 620 places with the best public schools in Michigan.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Things To Do
After touching on all the good things about the area, I wanted to talk about the not so good things too. Kicking it off with the first, I’d have to say there’s just not a lot to do despite me stating how different it is from other lake communities. But if you aren’t a lake person, there’s not a lot of amenities that cater to you very much. You don’t have the shopping malls, or endless nature offerings, and I’d have to say that’s the biggest complaint I hear from current and past residents who live in the area, but they do enjoy the fact that they are close to other communities. People just felt like they were jumping into another community without feeling apart of their own.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Traffic
The next con that holds very true right now, and that’s the traffic, people are really clogging the on and off ramps and the roundabouts near the expressways to avoid the mess that is going on along US-23 right now, the plus side to this is there’s a road that stretches along both sides of the expressway call Whitmore lake road on the west side and Fieldcrest on the east side, but the downside is they get off at the Whitmore Lake exit right now to hop on those and it can get a little congested. With traffic in mind there’s also the complaint about people just driving by too fast. When you make your rounds around Whitmore Lake road there are some houses that are on the other side of the lake but have docks on the other side, such as east shore drive, and people fly around the winding roads when people are crossing to get to their docks.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Lake Home Situation
This also plays a role in the next con too and that’s the fact that houses are very tight next to each other along the lake and there’s hardly a driveway to pull into, so everything just feels a little snug and you can’t just have a line of cars along the road when you want to have a bunch of people to entertain on the lake because you are not only clogging the roads, you’d be parking in front of someone's driveway at that point, and of course if you’re a lake home owner in Michigan you understand that’s just how it is, but for people that are new to it, you might be someone who wants a little more room to breath. The homes may be on a quarter of an acre, but they are extremely skinny, where the homes are almost along the property lines on both sides, so that’s just something to keep in mind if you’re thinking about making the move on the lake there.
Whitmore Lake Michigan Schools
The last Con I wanted to tackle are the schools, despite having some options in that department, if we just narrow on Whitmore lake schools, they are not naked very highly according to US news, great schools .org and a few more, and I think when there is hype about the schools around Whitmore Lake, they are referring to Brighton, Ann Arbor or South lyon, which they have all the right too because they are apart of the districts, but it can be off putting to the Whitmore Lake school district it self.
So what do you think, is this a place you’d live in, why or why not? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
Thanks as always for reading, If you’re looking to buy, sell or invest in the wonderful state of Michigan, don’t hesitate to reach out, I’m happy to be your go to resource, 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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