Whose taxes is a Sister Lakes listing showing when it prints last year's bill? The seller's, and they reflect however many years that owner has held the place under Michigan's assessment cap. The buyer inherits the house and the lake frontage. The tax history stops at closing.
In Keeler Township, that history can be a long way below what a new owner pays. Across the township's 1,845 residential parcels, the 2026 taxable value totals $170,450,029. The state equalized value of the same parcels totals $278,771,300, according to the 2026 Van Buren County Equalization Report. On average, owners pay tax on about 61 cents for every dollar of equalized value. A buyer starts paying on the full dollar.
The cap belongs to the owner, not the house
Michigan's Proposal A limits how fast taxable value can grow while one person owns a property. Each year's increase is held to 5% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, except for additions and losses. For 2026 the State Tax Commission set that inflation rate multiplier at 1.027, a 2.7% ceiling, in Bulletin 14 of 2025, issued November 18, 2025. As of late October 2026, the State Tax Commission's multiplier archive does not yet list a 2027 figure.
Market value has no such ceiling, so a long-held cottage builds a gap between what it is taxed on and what it is assessed at. A sale closes that gap. The Michigan Department of Treasury's Transfer of Ownership Guidelines state the rule directly:
"In the year following a statutory transfer of ownership, that limitation is eliminated and the property's taxable value is set at 50% of the property's true cash value (i.e., the state equalized value)."
The same document says assessors have no discretion here. They "must uncap a property's taxable value in the year following the transfer of ownership," and set it at the state equalized value for that year. Treasury's change of ownership page adds that state law lists some transfers that are exempt from uncapping, so a buyer whose purchase is unusual in any way should confirm how it is treated.
The 2026 totals for Keeler show the mechanism working. Taxable value across the township rose 4.92% from 2025 to 2026, well above the 2.7% cap. Under the rules above, a parcel with no change in ownership and nothing added can rise only 2.7%. Growth beyond that comes from parcels that changed hands or added value.
On the lakes, assessments are trailing the sales
The 61% figure is a township-wide average, and it includes inland homes, newer construction, and parcels that sold recently. The lakefront numbers in Keeler's own assessing files suggest that the frontage people actually shop for may carry its own gap.
The township assessor publishes its 2026 land value studies on the Keeler Township assessor page. One study groups Round Lake, both Crooked Lake segments, Magician Lake, and several back-lot and condo areas. It draws on seven sales recorded between October 6, 2023 and January 17, 2025, at prices from $300,000 to $775,000. On average, the current assessment on those parcels came to 45.80% of the sale price, and no single sale reached 55%. Michigan law targets an average of 50%, as the Van Buren County Equalization department explains. Treasury also cautions that true cash value is usually not the sale price, so an assessor cannot simply set a buyer's value at half of what was paid. These are assessor studies built on 2023 to 2025 sales. They are not current market prices. They do show the assessed side of lakefront value has been running behind the sale side.
The same files show how much the land under a cottage depends on which water it faces. These are the front-foot values Keeler adopted for 2026:
| Keeler Township 2026 land study area | Value used per front foot |
|---|---|
| Round, Crooked, Magician and related areas | $6,000 |
| Keeler Lake lakefront | $2,400 |
| Brown, Woodland Park, Crooked Lake Park | $610 |
Fifty feet of frontage on Round Lake carries $300,000 in land value under that schedule. The same fifty feet on Keeler Lake carries $120,000. Two cottages with matching tax histories could reset to very different numbers depending on the lake.
Which rate gets multiplied depends on two lines on the map
Uncapping sets the taxable value. The millage rate is applied to it, and in Sister Lakes that rate depends on two things the listing photos never show. One is the school district the parcel sits in. The other is whether the owner claims it as a principal residence.
Treasury's 2025 total rates report, the most recent statewide table posted, lists these totals in mills for Keeler Township and neighboring Silver Creek Township:
| Township, school district | Principal residence | Non-homestead |
|---|---|---|
| Keeler Twp., Watervliet | 26.8727 | 44.8727 |
| Keeler Twp., Dowagiac Union | 27.3330 | 45.2400 |
| Keeler Twp., Hartford Public | 33.7267 | 51.7267 |
| Silver Creek Twp., Eau Claire Public | 18.2563 | 36.2563 |
| Silver Creek Twp., Dowagiac Union | 24.0166 | 41.9236 |
The full report is posted as Treasury's 2025 Total Rates PDF. The district names here mark tax boundaries and nothing else. Within Keeler Township alone, the principal residence rate runs from 26.8727 to 33.7267 mills.
The bigger swing is the right-hand column. Michigan's Principal Residence Exemption exempts a qualifying home from local school operating millage, up to 18 mills. Treasury's occupancy guidance limits it to an owner's true, fixed, permanent home. Its own example describes a cottage used on weekends and in summer as seasonal property, not a principal residence. If a year-round seller held the exemption and the buyer will use the place as a second home, the buyer moves to the non-homestead column at the same moment the taxable value uncaps.
How the two resets stack
An illustration makes the combined effect easier to see. It uses round numbers and 2025 rates, and it does not estimate any real parcel.
Picture a Round Lake cottage with a state equalized value of $250,000. Its seller's taxable value sits at $152,500, close to the 61% township ratio. Each mill costs $1 per $1,000 of taxable value.
- The seller, claiming the exemption in the Hartford Public portion of Keeler, pays about $5,143 a year at 33.7267 mills on $152,500.
- A year-round buyer in the same spot, after uncapping to $250,000, pays about $8,432 at the same rate.
- A second-home buyer in the same spot, at 51.7267 mills on $250,000, pays about $12,932.
- The same second-home buyer on a Watervliet-district parcel, at 44.8727 mills, pays about $11,218.
Same house, same lake, and the annual bill ranges from about $5,100 to about $12,900 depending on who owns it and how they use it. The listing would show the first figure.
Timing for a fall closing
For anyone closing before year-end, the calendar adds two dates. A sale that closes in 2026 uncaps for the 2027 tax year, and taxable value is set at the 2027 state equalized value. The exemption runs on its own schedule. Treasury's claim requirements say Form 2368 is due by June 1 for the summer levy or by November 1 for the winter levy. A filing made between June 2 and November 1 takes effect with the winter levy. On the Thursday this post goes live, November 1 is three days away.
Everything here is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Before you rely on any number, confirm it for your parcel with the Keeler Township assessor and a qualified tax professional.
Quick answers
Will my taxable value equal half of what I paid?
Not automatically. Treasury's guidelines say the assessor sets true cash value the same way for sold and unsold properties and may not simply use half the sale price.
Where can I estimate a specific parcel before making an offer?
Treasury runs a Property Tax Estimator that estimates property taxes and compares millage rates across Michigan local units. Pair it with the current assessment on the parcel from the Keeler Township assessor.
Does this apply in Silver Creek Township?
The uncapping and exemption rules are statewide. The Silver Creek Township rates in the table above are lower, and Cass County's own 2026 values are separate from the Van Buren figures cited here.
Andrea Hook-Graham can pull the assessment, school district and exemption history on any parcel you're considering, so you can compare cottages on what they'll actually cost to hold. Let's Connect.
