Comments on: Detroit Houses = $1

By: Detroit, Man

Detroit, Man — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:13:54 +0000

Detroit was the original housing bubble (in the early teens and twenties it expanded like no other city in the country). Now all those big brick McMansions of their day are falling apart, and no one wants to live in them because they are too expensive to maintain; the only people who live in them are the ones who can’t afford anything else.
The so called “decline” of Detroit is nothing but the evacution of the remnants of an unprecedented industrial expansion and middle class prosperity. Detroit is a giant museum of a by-gone age, but it’s condition has nothing to do with the decline of the auto industry as much as it’s success – everyone who could afford it moved to the suburbs with their big yards and cozy ranch style homes.
Almost every abandoned house and storefront in Detroit is a remnant of those boom times. There are factories still standing that used to produce horse carriages. If you can see beyond the decay it can be a fascinating drive seeing these old buildings that formed concentric rings around the city decade by decade. It will take a massive demolition project to eventually clean out the leftovers of that age. Unfortunately, they will probably throw out the good with the bad when they do.

By: thefinancedude

thefinancedude — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Did anyone else notice the first two homes listed were the same home?

By: Anonymouse

Anonymouse — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:30:50 +0000

Hey Nick,

Way to man-up and apologize. Good for you.

By: Short Man

Short Man — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:27:29 +0000

Wille said “Anyone thought of buying these houses for $1, then stripping what ever can be stripped and selling it of on eBay? (I’m thinking sinks, pipes, any whiteware left etc).

Take a leaf from the 80’s corporate raiders playbook – cut it up and sell it in pieces.”

- – - – - – - -

Most likely anything of value was already stripped out but you wouldn’t find out until after you closed on the deal. Unlikely you’d ever recover the closing costs. Even if you did, you are the new owner on title and are responsible for property taxes/maintenance until you can unload it to someone else. Would cost a couple thousand just to demolish the place.

By: Smokefoot

Smokefoot — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:35:17 +0000

Nick said: “The upshot of all this is that I believe Detroit is a poor example to use in the housing debate.”

Barry actually used Detroit as a exception: “outside of Love Canal & Detroit, houses don’t go to zero”.

By: Mo

Mo — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:54:20 +0000

I’m sure that I’m just missing the link, but the Detroit News tackled this topic yesterday in an article titled “Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for $1″ and it’s the most popular article on their website this morning:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/METRO/808130360/&imw=Y

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:13:45 +0000

Okay, I’ll start with a huge apology to Barry. I’ve been a fan of this blog and his public work for some time. I’m sorry.
Comparing Detroit, all of Detroit, to the most notorious toxic contamination event in US history is unfair. These homes are located in blighted areas of the city of Detroit. And as mentioned by previous posters, these places are not in move in condition. To the poster that suggested stripping these homes and selling the parts on ebay: It has already been done for decades. These are not homes. They are shells. Leaky shells. Stripping these places has made them near worthless. It’s scumbag “business ventures” that have helped decimate these neighborhoods in the first place. And tax liens matter. You will have a bill to pay at closing. There is no $0 house.
And Detroit had this problem well before the advent of the subprime mortgage. Before easy financing, land contracts and FHA were the primary vehicles for selling homes. And these places have foundered along side the subprime financed homes. This is a city that once had nearly 2 million souls that today has 800,000. Want to know what happened? The white people left. Then many, many of the successful black people left. Detroit, the region, is a very prosperous place despite the national atttention it receives to the contrary. But the city is largely a ghetto. It’s schools are terrible. The property tax rates are very high (to compensate for lost population through the decades.) And services are infrequent to nonexistent.
The upshot of all this is that I believe Detroit is a poor example to use in the housing debate. The suburb experience is far more instructive. In this town, shots taken at Detroit all too often have a racial message to deliver. For that I am sorry to have included Barry. But for everyone, remember this, pot shots at Detroit are cheap in any event. Go make a positive change in your own blighted, urban area before hurling insults at ours.

By: John

John — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:16:00 +0000

To some people everything has a racial connotation, Nick is clearly one of them. Most of them are totally humorless alas. The more serious downside of this sort of over reactive idiocy is that it provides fodder for those interested in promoting racially divisive politics to poke fun at what are often substantive issues of discrimination and disadvantage. Grow up Nick you sounded like jerk.

By: Wille

Wille — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:28:57 +0000

Anyone thought of buying these houses for $1, then stripping what ever can be stripped and selling it of on eBay? (I’m thinking sinks, pipes, any whiteware left etc).

Take a leaf from the 80’s corporate raiders playbook – cut it up and sell it in pieces.

By: simon

simon — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:45:14 +0000

If I ever come to America I’m going to visit Detroit to see these houses. They are some how so symbolic. They are so sad. Many were grand houses in presumably leafy suburbs.

They are almost like organic Inca ruins. I hope they don’t portend a similar fate for us.