How much are homes in Oakland Township?

The median sale price is currently $728K, with 69 homes active on the market. Prices vary widely by acreage, build, and school district, so the median is a starting point, not a quote. Ask us for a comp on the specific home you're considering.

How far is Oakland Township from downtown Detroit?

About 32 miles south, roughly 40 to 45 minutes by car, mostly down I-75. Rochester is just minutes away and handles most day-to-day needs.

Which school district serves Oakland Township?

Three districts serve the township depending on the address: Rochester Community Schools, Lake Orion Community Schools, and Romeo Community Schools. The boundaries run through Oakland Township, so confirm the district by exact address before you buy.

Why is Oakland Township so spread out compared to nearby towns?

By design. The township's master plan and zoning cap density and limit commercial and industrial development, which is what kept it wooded and rural while neighboring areas built up.

Is there a downtown in Oakland Township?

Not really. The township is residential by intent, with no retail corridor of its own. Goodison and Campbells Corner are small historic community areas, and downtown Rochester serves as the practical commercial center for most residents.

Neighborhood guideOakland County

Photo: Cranberry Lake Farm Historic District (Oakland Township, MI) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Living in Oakland Township, MI: A Local’s Guide

Oakland Township sits in northern Oakland County, and its zoning is the whole story. Local ordinances cap density and keep most commercial and industrial development out, so the township stayed wooded and spread out while the towns around it filled in. About 20,000 people live here on larger parcels with winding roads and mature trees. Most of them commute. Downtown Detroit is roughly 32 miles south, about a 40 to 45 minute drive most of it down I-75. People move here for land and quiet inside easy reach of Rochester, and they tend to stay.

See homes for sale in Oakland Township

What Oakland Township is known for

Three things, mostly.

The first is open space. Bald Mountain Recreation Area, a 4,637-acre state park, sits partly in the township, and the Paint Creek Trail runs straight through it. The township also runs its own parks system on top of that, including the 213-acre Cranberry Lake Park.

The second is the Paint Creek Trail itself. It opened in 1983 as Michigan's first rail-to-trail conversion. The 8.9-mile path links Rochester, Rochester Hills, Oakland Township, Orion Township, and the Village of Lake Orion, and it's a daily-use amenity here, not a destination people drive to.

The third is the rural character that the township works to protect. There's no big retail corridor, no office park, no factory. The master plan is built to keep it that way.

Quieter than the suburbs to the south, and more private. Lots are bigger, homes sit farther apart, and outbuildings and pole barns are common. You drive for groceries and most errands, usually toward Rochester or Lake Orion. That's the trade most residents make on purpose.

The median household income was about $170,000 in 2023, which tells you who ends up here. It's an established, well-off bedroom community where people commute out for work and come home to land. Goodison and Campbells Corner are small community areas residents still name when they talk about where they live, holdovers from the township's older settlement pattern.

Oakland Township, by the numbers

median sale price

$728K

avg days on market

27

price yoy

+2.8%

active listings

69

Prices here swing more by parcel than by neighborhood. Acreage, the condition of a custom home, and which school district the address falls in all move the number, so the township median can hide a wide spread. If you want to know what a specific home is actually worth, we'll run a comp-based valuation on recent local sales. No algorithm, just the numbers a real buyer would pay.

Getting around

No freeway runs through Oakland Township. The nearest state highway is M-24, Lapeer Road, which runs just west of the township through Orion Township and Lake Orion and connects south to I-75 in Auburn Hills. Most residents reach the rest of Metro Detroit by taking Adams Road, Rochester Road, or M-24 down to I-75. Downtown Detroit is about 32 miles south, roughly 40 to 45 minutes without traffic. Rochester and its hospitals and shopping are minutes away, which is the practical center of gravity for most households here.

Things to do in Oakland Township

Walk, run, or bike the Paint Creek Trail, which connects all the way to downtown Rochester and the Village of Lake Orion

Hike or fish at Bald Mountain Recreation Area, one of the larger state parks in the region

Spend a morning at Cranberry Lake Park, where the trails pass through bog and old forest and the historic buildings are worth the stop

Take the trail connector over to Addison Oaks County Park at Romeo Road

Drive into downtown Rochester for restaurants, shops, and events, which is where most of the township's social life actually happens

Is Oakland Township a good place to buy?

For the right buyer, yes, and the tradeoff is honest. You get land, privacy, trail access, and a top-ranked school option, inside a community that has deliberately kept itself from being developed. What you give up is walkability and convenience. There's no downtown of your own, no corner store, and you'll drive for nearly everything. If you want acreage and quiet and you don't mind the car, it fits. If you want to walk to coffee, look at Rochester instead.

The homes

The housing here is newer and larger than the prewar stock you'd find in Rochester or Detroit proper. Think late-20th-century and newer single-family homes on acreage, plus custom builds, many with the outbuildings and pole barns the larger lots allow. The township's density cap means you won't find dense subdivisions or townhome clusters at any scale. Inventory tends to be lower and more varied than in the suburbs, because the place was built around land, not lot count.

Schools

Oakland Township is split across three districts, and which one serves a given home depends on the address.

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