Manchester became a city in 2023 — what that changed

If you’re buying in Manchester, here’s something new worth knowing: Manchester only became a city in late 2023. For more than 150 years it was a village — and in Michigan, a village always sits inside a township, which means village residents get two layers of local government instead of one. Manchester was part of Manchester Township, so things like assessing and tax collection ran through the township. In November 2023, Manchester’s voters approved becoming a city, and on November 15, 2023, the City of Manchester was born. The big change: as a city, Manchester is now independent — it’s no longer part of Manchester Township, and the city itself now handles its own assessing, elections, and property-tax collection. (There was a short transition: because of how Michigan sets tax dates, the township still sent out one last tax bill for late 2023 before the city took over collection in 2024 — the same thing happened when nearby Chelsea and Dexter became cities.) For a buyer today, the practical upshot is simple: your local government is now just the City of Manchester, not a city-plus-township stack, so check with the city for tax and assessing questions.