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Detroit Housing Prices: Unbelievably Low

post #1 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:07pm
Thread Starter 
http://realestate.msn.com/Buying/Art...mentid=4349836

Quote:
After selling house after house in the Motor City for less than the $29,000 it costs to buy the average new car, the auctioneer tried a new line: "The lumber in the house is worth more than that!"

As Detroit reels from job losses in the auto industry, the depressed city has emerged as a boomtown in one area: foreclosed property.
Any chewers live in Detroit? Instead of picking up a new stereo or television, maybe get yourself a condo or a fixer-upper house?
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post #2 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:09pm
Or Kevlar.
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post #3 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:15pm
Or Nuke
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post #4 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:16pm
I got to go with Dev on this one. There's a VERY GOOD reason why houses in Detroit are so cheap? Why? Because no one wants to live there.

On an unrelated note, Faygo, that soda out of Michigan sucks. It's like that Shasta crap sold at the 99 cent store.
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post #5 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:23pm
I do, and the housing market in the entire metro area has been abysmal since 9/11. While the rest of the U.S. had a huge housing/real estate boom, Michigan has been floundering in a single state depression the entire time. It's also losing residents hand over fist at a 63% exodus rate last year. Predictions are that nothing will turn around for at least another decade, and the brain trust that still resides here decided to elect the same governor who had zero idea on what to do to halt this decline the previous term for another 4 years.

On the plus side, If the downtown prices get just a little lower, I'm thinking of buying a square mile of housing and declaring it my own city.
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post #6 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:26pm
You don't want to buy a house in Detroit proper. Period. Even as an investment. The city's a mess and the leadership is corrupt as hell. You can get some very nice deals in any of the suburbs around Detroit (not for $29,000) but good luck finding a job. Michigan in general is in a lot of trouble right now.

Edit: Death Surge, Granholm ain't great, but you can't blame her entirely. When the big three are in trouble, EVERYTHING suffers. And the Amway guy they had running against her last year was a joke. Between voting for her and that douche, the choice was obvious.
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post #7 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:28pm
Only one thing can save this city: we need the plot of "Robocop" to come true. And in a couple of years, it won't cost a corporation that much to buy the entire city to build their own "New Detroit".
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post #8 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge
Only one thing can save this city: we need the plot of "Robocop" to come true. And in a couple of years, it won't cost a corporation that much to buy the entire city to build their own "New Detroit".
That film could prove as prophetic as Demolition Man.
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post #9 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Lyczak
Death Surge, Granholm ain't great, but you can't blame her entirely. When the big three are in trouble, EVERYTHING suffers. And the Amway guy they had running against her last year was a joke. Between voting for her and that douche, the choice was obvious.
Not really. As creepy as Amway is, it's specialty is marketing trashy American goods overseas instead of the other way around. The head of the Ada Michigan cult is scary, but at least he knew business. "Jenny from the Block" is busy figuring out how to tax service industries in direct conflict with attracting new corporate investors, has managed to lose K-Mart, Pfizer and Commerica out of here, all while watching the bread and butter auto industry go down the drain. I can't wait to see how the proposed privatization of the Juvenile justice system works out for her either.
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post #10 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:49pm
Man, that city must be crawling with Juggalos.
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post #11 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge
Only one thing can save this city: we need the plot of "Robocop" to come true. And in a couple of years, it won't cost a corporation that much to buy the entire city to build their own "New Detroit".
If this does in fact happen, we need to keep watch on Kurtwood Smith just to make sure he doesn't get out of line.

But in the meantime isn't the Crow out there avenging or some shit?
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post #12 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge
I do, and the housing market in the entire metro area has been abysmal since 9/11. While the rest of the U.S. had a huge housing/real estate boom, Michigan has been floundering in a single state depression the entire time. It's also losing residents hand over fist at a 63% exodus rate last year. Predictions are that nothing will turn around for at least another decade, and the brain trust that still resides here decided to elect the same governor who had zero idea on what to do to halt this decline the previous term for another 4 years.

On the plus side, If the downtown prices get just a little lower, I'm thinking of buying a square mile of housing and declaring it my own city.
The situation in Detroit is fascinating. I just read a series of articles about entire blocks being abandoned due to no one being willing to pay the property taxes. The "abandonia" sites about the Grand Central Station are pretty neat. If I was a supervillain, I'd definitely buy it up, refurbish it, and use it as my lair.

These housing prices are ridiculous. Death Surge, can you come up with the two hundred and fifty seven dollars needed to buy your own block?

Detroit needs to cut down on property taxes and wipe out zoning for ten years to try to bring anyone in who actually wants to buy this stuff. Maybe they could just condemn and give houses away if people are willing to front five years worth of property taxes. Do something! An entire city being slowly abandoned is just preposterous.
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post #13 of 31
4/11/07 at 2:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken
But in the meantime isn't the Crow out there avenging or some shit?
He committed suicide to get away from all the Hot Topic kids following him around all the time. His last words were "I am your Messiah! Now FUCK OFF!"
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post #14 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Overlord
Detroit needs to cut down on property taxes and wipe out zoning for ten years to try to bring anyone in who actually wants to buy this stuff. Maybe they could just condemn and give houses away if people are willing to front five years worth of property taxes. Do something! An entire city being slowly abandoned is just preposterous.
It's been on a massive decline since the riots in the late 60's. There was 20+ years of one of the most corrupt mayors of all time (Coleman Young) and along with a just as bad city council, who spent all of their time cultivating racial tensions while stealing as much money as possible. There was a brief respite in the mid 90's with Mayor Dennis Archer, but he got tired of fighting the city council, and now we have the thugmeister general, Kwame Killpatrick back to old school city theft and mismanagement.

Most amusing is that there's actually a 3% city income tax that doesn't exist if you move to any of the suburbs. And just recently, the city stopped picking up trash as a cost savings effort. No, I'm not kidding, No trash pick up. They've recently started that back up, but it's not hard to figure out why no one wants to live in the city.
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post #15 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:07pm
The city council is indeed the biggest problem. They need a total transfusion of new blood before anything even starts to change there.
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post #16 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:10pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge
And just recently, the city stopped picking up trash as a cost savings effort. No, I'm not kidding, No trash pick up. They've recently started that back up, but it's not hard to figure out why no one wants to live in the city.
This sounds better and better. Where are the costumed vigilantes? You guys are living in a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Who would be dumb enough to keep voting for these apparently corrupt politicians?
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post #17 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:20pm
There's a rampant "Devil you know" mentality. Kwame keeps getting busted for obvious things (renting his wife a navigator on the cities dime, paying for him and entourage in strip clubs, etc.) so people were afraid the new guy might be smarter at ripping them off. The City Council is way smarter and don't get caught as often, so people like having the cleverer criminals working for their district.
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post #18 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:23pm
I found there to be a really strange mentality about Kwame when he gets busted. Where most normal people are outraged, you'll find a disturbing amount of people that are cool with it because he's getting his while he can and they'd do the same in his shoes. It's unexplainable.
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post #19 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:41pm
Is that new Robocop film still in the works? Sounds like it couldn't come at a better time.
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post #20 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:52pm
I remember reading "Made in Detroit" by Paul Clemens who was a kid when Young came to power and just details the crippling decline the city goes through in the next 30 years.

But you think of a city that seems to be on permeant decline on the way to ruin. An example of rust belt decay, you think Detroit.
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post #21 of 31
4/11/07 at 3:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Lyczak
I found there to be a really strange mentality about Kwame when he gets busted. Where most normal people are outraged, you'll find a disturbing amount of people that are cool with it because he's getting his while he can and they'd do the same in his shoes. It's unexplainable.
We've got the same problem in DC with Marion Barry. The guy's on City Council now, and is constantly getting into legal trouble for one reason or another, but his constituents fucking LOVE him. It's nuts. The DC City Council (and, sounds like Detroit, too) operates like the government. of a third world country.
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post #22 of 31
4/12/07 at 10:54pm
I grew up in a small suburb near Detroit, a remarkaby shitty town nicknamed Taylor-tucky. No matter how many times we tried to look at Detroit in a decent light, it always found new ways to be horrible every time we went there.
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post #23 of 31
4/12/07 at 11:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge
"Jenny from the Block" is busy figuring out how to tax service industries in direct conflict with attracting new corporate investors, has managed to lose K-Mart, Pfizer and Commerica out of here, all while watching the bread and butter auto industry go down the drain. I can't wait to see how the proposed privatization of the Juvenile justice system works out for her either.
My family is from Michigan, and they hate Granholm too; not necessarily in defense of her, but I think it would be tough on ANY politician to keep Michigan afloat when the auto industry is in the process of going teats up. The Big Three were a MASSIVE economic force across the bulk of Michigan's most populous area, and even those not directly employed by them were either part of corollary industries, or employed in services that benefited from blue-collar people making nice bank working in the factories.
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post #24 of 31
4/12/07 at 11:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken
But you think of a city that seems to be on permeant decline on the way to ruin. An example of rust belt decay, you think Detroit.
Detroit makes the whole Great Lakes region look bad.
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post #25 of 31
4/13/07 at 1:29am
As someone who lives two hours away from the festering pit that is Detroit, I can say hands-down that nearly everything stated in this thread is unequivocally correct. The only people in this state who still support that ghost town are a small handful of Detroiters; the nose-dive it took after electing Coleman Young (who is still lauded in many circles; did anyone actually pay attention to anything about his policies? The fact that he based his administration around an African dictatorship? Nah, they zeroed in on his skin color) is immeasurable. It doesn't help much that the local populace re-elects such blatant crooks as Kwame. Most of us Michiganders just wish Detroit would go the hell away - the damn thing is an open sinkhole of the state budget, and none of it amounts to anything.

Also, as far as "New Detroit" references go, it exists - take a wrong turn on Harper Avenue and you'll be faced with quintessential post-apocalyptic imagery - crumbling buildings in ruin, burning tires in the streets, it's all there.
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post #26 of 31
4/13/07 at 3:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse The Mind
As someone who lives two hours away from the festering pit that is Detroit, I can say hands-down that nearly everything stated in this thread is unequivocally correct. The only people in this state who still support that ghost town are a small handful of Detroiters; the nose-dive it took after electing Coleman Young (who is still lauded in many circles; did anyone actually pay attention to anything about his policies? The fact that he based his administration around an African dictatorship? Nah, they zeroed in on his skin color) is immeasurable. It doesn't help much that the local populace re-elects such blatant crooks as Kwame. Most of us Michiganders just wish Detroit would go the hell away - the damn thing is an open sinkhole of the state budget, and none of it amounts to anything.

Also, as far as "New Detroit" references go, it exists - take a wrong turn on Harper Avenue and you'll be faced with quintessential post-apocalyptic imagery - crumbling buildings in ruin, burning tires in the streets, it's all there.
I thought the miserable years I spent in the Tenderloin in S.F. was bad, but this sounds like an urban version of Mad Max. I'm going to go look for some interesting documentaries on the current state of Detroit. I'm surprised Michigan isn't tempted to simply cut off funding if acceptable policies aren't implemented.

He based his administration on an African dictatorship? Do tell.
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post #27 of 31
4/13/07 at 3:46am
Oh, we'd love to cut Detroit off, but unfortunately they make up a significant enough voter bloc that their collective voice simply can't be ignored. The primary reason DeVos lost the election to Granholm is due to them - he came on far too strong about welfare reform, and noting where there checks came from, the motor city got spooked and voted almost unanimously against him (it's interesting to note that up until he took that campaign-killing stance they were largely in support of him).

I'm pretty sure Young idolized Adi Amin for being a "strong, assertive leader," but I can't really back that up aside from my having read several (glowing) articles in the Detroit Press about him mentioning it. I'll have to look it up.
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post #28 of 31
4/13/07 at 12:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse The Mind
I'm pretty sure Young idolized Adi Amin for being a "strong, assertive leader," but I can't really back that up aside from my having read several (glowing) articles in the Detroit Press about him mentioning it. I'll have to look it up.
Only in America. Or, I suppose, Uganda.
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post #29 of 31
4/13/07 at 1:15pm
Detroit has an unnatural love for crazy dictators. We gave Saddam Hussein a key to the city back in the 80's.
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post #30 of 31
4/13/07 at 3:49pm
I was going to post something on here to defend my native state but I honestly can't think of anything. This entire state is in deep shit.
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post #31 of 31
4/13/07 at 3:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge
Detroit has an unnatural love for crazy dictators. We gave Saddam Hussein a key to the city back in the 80's.
Does Detroit have a lot of steep slopes or buildings with stairwells? Cuz' if not, ED 209 needs to be brought out of mothballs ASAP.
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