Buying in Livingston County, Michigan

Livingston County at a glance

Livingston County is one of 83 counties and county-equivalents in Michigan. Its county seat is Howell. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. Its 2024 Census Bureau population estimate is 196,976 across 565 square miles of land — about 348 people per square mile. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 1,140 offenses — 5.79 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Livingston County

• Property record card — the Livingston County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Howell; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Livingston County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Livingston County is the primary county for 12 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Livingston County reported 1,140 offenses — 5.79 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (818). The crime section below sets that beside the Michigan county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry (PSOR) (Michigan State Police) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Livingston building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Howell.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Michigan.

Reported crime in Livingston County — FBI 2024

Agencies in Livingston County reported 1,140 offenses to the FBI in 2024 — 178 violent and 962 property offenses. That works out to a reported-crime rate of 5.79 per 1,000 residents (violent 90.4, property 488.4 per 100,000).

Inside Michigan, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 260 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 719 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 83 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (818), aggravated assault (121) and burglary (78).

Coverage: 9 of 9 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 9 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The Michigan rules that apply in Livingston County

Traps researched for Michigan buyers: Proposal A uncapping after transfer; The disclosure form itself warns taxes change on transfer.

Read the full Michigan guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

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