Understanding Property Taxes on Detroit Rentals: Principal Residence Exemption and Non-Homestead Rates
You closed on a Detroit rental in the spring, you budgeted for the taxes the seller was paying, and then the summer bill arrived and it was hundreds of dollars higher than the number you underwrote. Nothing went wrong. The property simply stopped being somebody's principal residence and started being an investment, and Michigan taxes those two things at very different rates.
Property taxes on Detroit rentals are one of the largest fixed costs in your pro f

