How many homes in Leelanau County might qualify as cabins?

Most of them, at least if an example provided by Ron Crummel, Leelanau County housing director, can be applied.

Crummel is the former clerk of Leelanau Township, where he remembers that two-thirds of all property tax bills he helped prepare were sent to seasonal homes.

“Some townships might be a little above, and some might be a little below,” said Crummel.

The just-released book Saving the Family Cottage, A Guide to Succession Planning by Suttons Bay attorney Stuart Hollander, puts the number of cottages in the U.S. at 5.2 million.

Florida leads in the number of “seasonal recreational properties” at 483,000, followed by California (237,000), New York (235,000) and Michigan (234,000).

Three New England states claim the highest saturation of cottages: 16 percent of homes in Maine, 15 percent in Vermont and 10 percent in New Hampshire.