Each year Oakland County Equalization, who provides property assessment services for Pleasant Ridge, sends out a notice of assessment to all residents in the City. The property taxes you pay are based on this assessment.

Click here for a sample that shows where the information below may be found on your notice of assessment.

The key items of information in the assessment are:

• Assessed Value 
  The assessed value is determined by a property’s market value. The market value of a property is determined by the assessor, and the assessed value listed on your notice of assessment is 50% of what the approximate market value of your property is. The assessor is constitutionally required to set the assessed value at 50% of the usual selling price, or true cash value, of the property. There is no limit on how much your assessed value may increase from year to year because it is based on the market value of your property.

• State Equalized Value (SEV)
  The SEV is the assessed value that has been adjusted following county and state equalization. The SEV is the same as the assessed value unless the County applies an equalization factor to assessed values. Oakland County does not apply an equalization factor, so Assessed Values in Pleasant Ridge are equal to SEV.

• Taxable Value
  A property’s taxable value is the value used for determining how much your property taxes are. Multiplying the taxable value by the local millage rate will determine your tax liability. Taxable value increases are “capped,” and may only increase from year to year at rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower. This means that there are limits on how much your taxable value can increase, and this is why the taxable value of a property will sometimes be lower than the assessed value.Transfers of ownership cause the taxable value to be “uncapped,” and in the year following a transfer of ownership the taxable value is increased to equal the assessed value. Improvements to the property such as additions or major remodeling projects may also increase the taxable value by more than the rate of inflation.  However, the taxable value may never be higher than the assessed value.

Your notice of assessment contains a disclaimer of what the estimated change in taxes that you pay will be based on the change in taxable value for the property.

Headlee and Proposal A Impacts on Property Taxes and Government Revenue

Click here for information about how the Headlee Amendment of 1978 and Proposal A of 1994 affect property taxes and local government revenue.

For further reading on this topic, refer to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan’s report “Michigan’s Overlapping Property Tax Limitations Create an Unsustainable Municipal Finance System” (link last accessed February 10, 2022).

Poverty Exemption Application

• Poverty exemption application
• Poverty exemption policy resolution