White Lake, MI

If you are looking for a home on a good sized lake then a Oxbow Lake waterfront home may be the one for you. Oxbow Lake is located in White Lake Township, Oakland County Michigan. It is just south of M-59 (Highland Rd), East of Teggerdine Rd, North of Elizabeth Lake Rd, W of N William Lake Rd.

White Lake Twp isn't a booming metropolis. In fact there are still farms and dirt roads that make you feel like up North. There aren't a lot of big chain restaurants, but more mom and pop type of establishments. Oxbow Lake's northern tip is right off of M-59 and M-59 will take you to Waterford, Pontiac, Brighton and Howell for all the shopping you need.

Oxbow Lake Waterfront homes are an eclectic mix. You have to remember like most of Southeastern Michigan Lake front homes Oxbow Lake was a weekend getaway for Metro Detroiters. They started building these Oxbow Lake waterfront homes in the early 1900's. There are many surviving homes from the 1920s, 1930s, up to the 1950s. But some of them were torn down to make newer homes over the years. Some have been rebuilt as recently as 2001.

Here are the characteristics of Oxbow Lake real estate White Lake MI:

• homes range in age primarily from the 1920 to 2000 (though there is one built in 1860)
• square footage ranges from 1000 to 3500 primarily (though there are some 4500 and 5000 square foot homes. There is even a 6281 square foot home and a 9290 square foot home)
• lake home styles are mostly ranches and colonials though you will find bungalows, cape cods, split level homes, and contemporary homes.
• The exteriors may be aluminum, vinyl siding, wood, brick or a mixture.
• some homes have basements some don't. There are walkout basement on the lake
• some home have garages and some don't some have over 3 car garages
• Bedroom sizes run from 1 bedroom up to 6 bedrooms
• Number of Bathrooms run from 1 to over 5 bathrooms

Oxbow Lake Map White Lake Twp MI

Oxbow Lake is 270 acres in size and 72 ft deep in the deepest spot. It is a nice Oakland County Lake to call home.

I hope this information helps you decide which White Lake Twp or Oakland County Lake to call home. If you have any questions feel free to call or email me.

Russ Ravary your Metro Detroit real estate agent

Search Metro Detroit lake listings whether it is Oakland County or Livingston County lakefront property

More Oakland County Lakefront Information

Photos courtesy of RealComp II LTD.

Yesterday I spent some time cruising around some of Oakland County Lakes and getting some pictures. It was a little cold and breezy to be on the water, but of course that didn't stop some of the little kids getting into the water. The sky was over cast but it was still nice to be near the water.

We stopped by Pontiac Lake's Quake on the Lake which are hydroplane races. It always amazes me how fast they go skimming across the water. I have seen footage of hydroplane boats flipping and busting up in a million pieces and I sure give it to those guys. I guess I don't have those speed and dare devil genes in me. And then we got some pictures of Williams Lake and Maceday Lake too. White Lake Township and Waterford have a lot of lakes to chose from if you are looking for lakefront property.

Then we stopped by and visited with friends on School Lake. If you don't know I love the lakes. I can't wait until August when we gon on short weekend trips. So far we are going up to Spider Lake near Traverse, then to Cheeseburger weekend in Caseville, and then to Harrisville and Hubbard Lake. (It's great to have friends on all the lakes) Of course I might find a day to slip out to Cedar Island Lake to visit my friend Howard.

If you are looking for information on Oakland County Lake real estate or Livingston County water front properties my two Websites Michigan Lake real estate and Oakland county Lakefront homes gives lots of great information about lake depth, public access, water source, fishing, private, or all sports. Here are some of the lakes I have gathered data and information on.

Russ Ravary your Metro Detroit real estate agent helping you find the home of your dreams whether it is a lake cottage, home with acreage, or home in a subdivision.

Search Oakland County Lakefront homes for sale and Livingston County waterfront properties and get the latest listings emailed to you.

This is the story of a woman who purchased a home last summer. I spent a lot of time showing her nearly 40 homes before she finally found what she thought was a good home:

White Lake Resident in Total Dismay over Home Purchase; Not Getting Answers from Oakland County Road Commission about Inferior Storm Drain

The storm drain by the street has been plugged since the snow melted last spring; ground water has no place to go but into the crawl spaces under homes

White Lake, MI - Susan Downey purchased her home in June of 2008 after looking at nearly 40 houses for sale. She started out looking at bank owned homes trying to get a great deal; however there were a variety of problems with many of the houses that the single homeowner did not want to deal with. "She was looking at small, single story homes without a basement," said Ralph Maupin, her real estate agent. "Her main concern was that the crawl space be dry because she is very sensitive to mold. Some of the homes we looked at had wet crawl spaces and we knew it the moment we entered the homes. She was wheezing by the time we left these homes."

After spending 3 months looking at homes Susan finally began looking at private owned homes being sold at retail prices. "We found a nice 3 bedroom ranch on Lindholm Street in White Lake Township," said Ralph. "We made an offer, subject to a satisfactory inspection of the home and crawl space. The crawl space appeared to be dry with no sign of mold. The owner claimed that he never had a problem with water in the crawl space."

There is a ditch with a catch basin that serves as a storm drain in front of several of the homes on Lindholm Street. At first there was no problem; the ditch stayed dry and Susan was able to cut the grass; even in the lowest spots. In the Fall of 2008 the ditch started holding water; it did not drain away. When Susan went to pay her property tax bill at the Township offices, she asked them who was responsible for maintaining the storm drain; they gave her the phone number to the Oakland County Road Commission. She called them and assumed they fixed the problem because the water level went down.

In the spring of 2009, after all the snow melted, the ditch was full of water; almost to the top. At this time, there was just a small amount of moisture in the crawl space. This time Susan had to make numerous calls to the Oakland County Road Commission to get them to come out. They finally came, in May, just before the Memorial Day Weekend and pumped some water out; however, the water table was so high that it kept filling up again. By this time, there was about 4 inches of standing water in the crawl space and Susan was suffering from asthma attacks at night due to the excess moisture. "I've known Susan for over 20 years; she was my full-time bookkeeper for 16 years and she never took even one sick day off! She doesn't even catch colds or the flu when a nasty virus is going around the office," said Ralph Maupin. "She assumed she had outgrown her allergy and asthma problems until this happened."

The Oakland County Road Commission gave up on the problem after removing some of the water and put a hideous looking plastic orange fence around the center of the ditch where the water level was over 3 feet deep. Susan thought this meant that they would be back soon to fix the problem. "I gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking they were going "back to the drawing board" to have a meeting and make a plan," said Susan. "When I called them again in the middle of June, I was shocked at their answer. The person who answered the phone said, "The fence is a safety precaution and we just have to hope for a dry summer so the water goes away. What kind of answer is this? My crawl space is full of water. I've had waterproofing contractors out to inspect and give me an estimate on putting in a drain system and sump pump, but they said there is no place for the water to go unless the Road Commission fixes the storm drain. The pump will run continuously and I'll be replacing it every year as it burns up. I'm sure it would also run up my electric bills too."

The next step was to call Jim Runestad, the County Commissioner assigned to the White Lake area. "I came over to Susan's house on June 22^nd and we called him together," said Ralph. "He was nice; he listened to our concerns and he really seemed to care. He said he would call the Oakland County Road Commission to see what was going on."

On June 23^rd, Susan received a call form the Oakland County Road Commission. "They gave me the same (scripted) answer that they gave me the first couple times I called them," said Susan. "The girl who called said ‘I will put in a report and someone will call you in a couple days.'" "No one from the Oakland County Road Commission has called me back yet," said Susan. "I'm not surprised!"

On June 25^th Jim Runestad called Susan; she missed the call but he left a message saying he wanted to confirm that the Oakland County Road Commission did come out and fix the problem. "I received his message after 5pm, so I called him back the next day to tell him nothing had been done," said Susan. "He said to call him back on Tuesday, June 30^th."

On June 26^th, after speaking to Jim Runestad, Susan emailed him pictures of the standing water. When she called him back Tuesday morning, there was no answer, so she left a message. "I called again later in the afternoon and left another message. At this point, I was afraid he was blowing me off too," said Susan.

On July 1^st, Jim Runestad called Susan and explained that he had a hectic day Tuesday but that he was working on getting the problem resolved. He said he spoke to the Oakland County Road Commission and they were "putting her report at the top of the stack." Jim told Susan to call him back on Thursday, July 2^nd to let him know if the problem gets resolved or not. Jim also spoke about the Oakland County Road Commission being under staffed and overwhelmed with roads to maintain and having no funding to hire more people.

Susan is still having problems sleeping and breathing at night. Her front yard is soft and spongy, the crawl space is full of water and no one seems to be able to help with the problem. She has created a blog with pictures and articles about her concerns about living with water under her house. Susan would appreciate it if people would visit her blog and make comments and suggestions as to what she can do to get the problem resolved. Visit Susan's blog at http://oaklandcountyroadcommission.blogspot.com/

Right now there are a lot of Michigan lake homes for sale. When I was checking recently I noticed that there were not as many Michigan lake foreclosures as compared to the number of foreclosures through out the Metro Detroit suburbs.

I have also noticed that lake property prices haven't dropped as much as most of Metro Detroit real estate. There are homes in Redford, Westland, Dearborn Heights that have lost as much as 70% of the value. Yet that isn't happening to lake homes.

There are many luxury Oakland County lakefront homes that range from $600,000 to over a $1,000,000. In fact the last time I looked there were about 120 Luxury Oakland County lakefront homes that were priced over a million dollars. They are beautiful lakefront homes in Livingston and Washtenaw Counties too.

What is great about metro Detroit lakes and Metro Detroit lake homes is that there is a wide variety of lakes. There are little small lakes that only have one or two homes on it. There are just swimming lakes, non-motor boat lakes, all sports lakes, and lakes that don't allow jet skis or wave runners.

Here is a few different lakes with indepth information.

• Portage Chain of lakes
• Cass Lake Oakland County Lakes MI
• Lake Angelus
• Lake Sherwood Commerce Twp MI
• Sylvan Lake information
• Wolverine Lakefront homes
• Lower Straits Lake MI
• White Lake Waterfront properties
• Upper Straits Lakefront real estate
• Woodland Lake Waterfront homes for sale

If you want the latest lake homes for sale emailed to you join my VIP Lake club

Search Michigan lakefront homes for sale

Universal Life Insurance

Universal Life is an innovative concept in the life insurance industry for your family and business needs. It combines the advantages of low cost term insurance with current market interest rates and the preferred tax treatment of whole life insurance. Universal Life is a type of permanent insurance, which provides lifelong protection. As long as you pay sufficient premiums, the death benefit will be paid.

As your life changes, a universal life policy can change with you. This policy was developed to give you the ultimate in both life insurance and financial flexibility. You can select the amount of coverage you need or the amount of premium you wish to spend. After the first year the policy is in force, you can adjust the policy death benefit and premium amounts. Universal life allows you, after your initial payment, to pay premiums at any time, in virtually any amount, subject to certain minimums and maximums. You also can reduce or increase the death benefit more easily than under a traditional whole life policy.

You also have the security of permanent protection with the tax-deferred build-up of your policy cash value, which is credited with a competitive current interest rate. You can choose a level death benefit or a death benefit that pays your beneficiary the death proceeds plus the policy cash value. You may add or withdraw cash from your cash value and still maintain your protection.

There are a variety of optional riders and benefits you can add to the policy. Our most commonly sold include the Waiver of Monthly Deduction and/or Waiver of Amount which will keep your policy in force during a period of disability, even though you're not making premium payments. There are also options to increase your face amount without evidence of insurability or options to provide coverage for your spouse and children in the same policy.

Ted Lewicki is the president of Pillar Financial Corporation located in Waterford, Michigan. Ted will help you analyze your financial situation and customize a plan that works for your family's life insurance needs. Find out more at http://www.pillarmortgage.com/

Servicing: Oakland County, Addison Township, Auburn Hills, Berkley, Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms, Birmingham, Bloomfield Township, Clawson, Commerce Township, Farmington, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Franklin, Hazel Park, Highland Township, Holly, Holly Township, Huntington Woods, Independence Township, Keego Harbor, Lathrup Village, Lyon Township, Madison Heights, Milford, Milford Township, Northville, Novi, Oak Park, Oakland Township, Orchard Lake, Orion Township, Oxford Township, Pleasant Ridge, Pontiac, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak,
Southfield, South Lyon, Troy, Walled Lake, Waterford Township, West Bloomfield Township, White Lake Township, Wixom

conventional mortgage, reverse mortgage, long-term care, senior care package, family care package, HECM, HECM reverse mortgage, reverse mortgage for seniors, mortgage reverse, mortgage reverse taxes, lender mortgage reverse, calculator mortgage reverse, lender reverse mortgage, Michigan reverse mortgage, home mortgage reverse, aarp mortgage reverse, hud mortgage reverse, seller financing, private mortgage, seniors in foreclosure, distressed property Michigan, jumbo loans, own your home, FHAsecure, refinance real estate, refinance investment property, investment property financing, finance investment property, lower interest rate, interest rate, foreclosure, get out of foreclosure, repair bad credit, restore credit, cash out, cash back at closing, income property, first time buyers, first time home buyer, low income home buyer, credit problems, need cash, finance, refinance, equity, home equity, home equity loan, equity line of credit, insurance, insurance quote, insurance policy, home owners insurance, auto insurance, car insurance, motor cycle insurance, boat insurance, recreational vehicle insurance, health insurance, life insurance, long term care insurance, disability income insurance, annuities, liability insurance, liability coverage, medical insurance, insurance claim, insurance application, adequate insurance coverage