$1 houses in Detroit

Rebelheart

There was this great article in yesterday's Guardian about the Detroit property market, where apparently it is not unusual to find houses for $1 and now very common to find houses for sale for a few hundred dollars. One in five houses in the city are now vacant. The article gives the impression that Detroit is dying on its feet along with the car industry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/02/detroit-homes-mortgage-foreclosures-80

Although the city doesn't look too bad in these pictures

Interestingly, there is at least one voluntary neighbourhood committee which is going in, without court permission, and bulldozing houses in their area because they have become hives of anti-social activity. The group/company is named Blight Busters and they have their own website:

http://www.blightbusters.org/

Here's hoping some of this will rub off on the Irish property market, which is currently being prevented from free falling by our taxes/government support/NAMA.

galwayrush

The bullet proof car and body armour will cost you a fortune though.:rolleyes:

Overheal

Welcome to the News of 2008?

edit: Actually, 2000

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DTNB&s_site=detnews&f_site=detnews&f_sitename=Detroit+News%2C+The+%28MI%29&p_multi=DTNB&p_theme=gannett&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F7501F480D71FC9&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

InTheTrees

Rebelheart wrote: »

There was this great article in yesterday's Guardian about the Detroit property market, where apparently it is not unusual to find houses for $1 and now very common to find houses for sale for a few hundred dollars. One in five houses in the city are now vacant. The article gives the impression that Detroit is dying on its feet along with the car industry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/02/detroit-homes-mortgage-foreclosures-80

Although the city doesn't look too bad in these pictures

Interestingly, there is at least one voluntary neighbourhood committee which is going in, without court permission, and bulldozing houses in their area because they have become hives of anti-social activity. The group/company is named Blight Busters and they have their own website:

http://www.blightbusters.org/

Here's hoping some of this will rub off on the Irish property market, which is currently being prevented from free falling by our taxes/government support/NAMA.

You'd be safer living in baghdad than in some of those detroit neighborhoods.

Seriously. You'd need to be just as well armed anyway.

bonerm

The Detroit area must really be going to pot! Check out what you could have bought last November if you'd had a spare €400k lying around. :eek:

Rebelheart

bonerm wrote: »

The Detroit area must really be going to pot! Check out what you could have bought last November if you'd had a spare €400k lying around. :eek:

Wow. This line stuck out:


"The sale of the Silverdome, completed in 1975 at a cost of $55.7 million (approx. $220 million in 2009 dollars), and sold in 2009 for $583,000 was viewed by many as a symbol of the collapse of real estate prices"

Understatement if ever there were one.

donmeister

Even if they paid me €10,000 I still wouldn't live there!

anonymous_joe

This has been a problem in Detroit since well before most of us were born.

congo_90

bonerm wrote: »

The Detroit area must really be going to pot! Check out what you could have bought last November if you'd had a spare €400k lying around. :eek:

think about how small a dublin apartment you could get for that money haha. Thats crazy!

Detroit, a city that's shrinking!
Soon many of those suburbs will revert to fields, no industry, no jobs soon to be a ghost town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2oXzrnti4

bonerm

He saved Detroit before .... and he can do it again!

galwayrush

Overheal wrote: »

Welcome to the News of 2008?

edit: Actually, 2000

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DTNB&s_site=detnews&f_site=detnews&f_sitename=Detroit+News%2C+The+%28MI%29&p_multi=DTNB&p_theme=gannett&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F7501F480D71FC9&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

We didn't have NAMA back then:p

Tail Wagger

Back in the early 80s the same thing happened in parts of England. With the Miners strike and the eventual close down of the mines in the North East of England. Newcastle / Leeds/ and parts of Yorkshire.

I remember watching a documentary about one particular area where couples who ha bought their homes and rared their families, The most they could get for their homes was in the region of £500. some houses that had gone derelict were selling in the pub on a Saturday night 2 for the price of 1 @£;10 for the 2.. and the say Thatcherism is dead, long live,

Teddy Chips

Parts of Detroit must resemble down town Bogota at this stage.

Poly

Tail Wagger wrote: »

I remember watching a documentary about one particular area where couples who ha bought their homes and rared their families, The most they could get for their homes was in the region of £500. some houses that had gone derelict were selling in the pub on a Saturday night 2 for the price of 1 @£;10 for the 2.. and the say Thatcherism is dead, long live,

Yeah, but the stamp duty is the killer, you wouldn't have enough for chips if you bought two.

Run_to_da_hills

bonerm wrote: »

The Detroit area must really be going to pot! Check out what you could have bought last November if you'd had a spare €400k lying around. :eek:

Public liability would probably cost you double that every year.

liah

Honestly, and I'm not just saying this, you couldn't pay me to live in Detroit. I've been literally homeless (as in, sleeping rough) and penniless, and I'd still prefer the street in an alright city to a mansion in that place.

It's dangerous. A breeding ground for gun crime and hard drugs. It's one of those types of places that once you're in, it's ridiculously hard to get back out. I don't care that it's only $1-- it is NOT worth it.

amacachi

I'd welcome houses at that price in Ireland, it would be great and not at all reflective of the fact that society had completely crumbled.

AckwelFoley

1 dollar houses?!

Benefits:

Cheap.
Spacious
Warm summers
Urban location, close to all ammenities.

Cons:

You will probably be shot before you turn the key in the door.... for the sole reason that when playing ""Drive by shooting"" the locals get bonus rep points for shooting whiteys

Armadillo

I was told a few years back that Dublin Corpo sold off a few corpo houses in Darndale for £1 each in the mid 1990's. They were wrecked though from squatting junkies.

stovelid

Tail Wagger wrote: »

and the say Thatcherism is dead, long live,

Or soon die, as the case may be.

m@cc@

Years of racist abuse and neglect by a black mayor more concerned with showing white folk whos boss rather than building a sustainable economy. They'd be better off raising that town to the ground and starting again.

AARRRGH

Overheal wrote: »

Welcome to the News of 2008?

edit: Actually, 2000

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DTNB&s_site=detnews&f_site=detnews&f_sitename=Detroit+News%2C+The+%28MI%29&p_multi=DTNB&p_theme=gannett&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F7501F480D71FC9&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

Hello there my friend

I think you will enjoy this video. I found it today.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/11940

barakus

http://www.trulia.com/foreclosure/3003994655--Idaho-St-Detroit-MI-48238

Yeah theres loads of them. Tempted to buy a few.

Mike 1972

Bear in mind that property taxes and other costs of ownership probably amount to four or five figures annually ?

df1985

put your hands up for one dollar houses!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYPqA4slnbQ

El Siglo

Old news, this has been the case for a long time now.

stovelid

Do some of the Irish people here actually think they could live there? Or that they're a short to medium-term investment bet?

There's obviously a reason why American people won't touch these properties with a barge pole.

Yakult

For the price of a house here, you could probably buy the city of detroit.

stovelid

stovelid wrote: »

Do some of the Irish people here actually think they could live there? Or that they're a short to medium-term investment bet?

There's obviously a reason why American people won't touch these properties with a barge pole.

No jobs, No Dole, High property taxes & no prospects for starters.
as well as being in a neighbourhood surrounded by derelict houses, crime probably isn't that bad as there are no people there!

stovelid

Surely it wouldn't be owners selling them at such low prices? Must be all repossessed or abandoned houses. Some of them look quite nice.

barakus

Ah would be cool to live out the ol eminem fantasy though, entering rap battles and the like:D

m@cc@

barakus wrote: »

Ah would be cool to live out the ol eminem fantasy though, entering rap battles and the like:D

Only an idiot would bring a microphone to a gun fight.

Run_to_da_hills

stovelid wrote: »

Would it be owners selling them for a dollar? Probably repossessed or abandoned houses I assume?

It would be just like buying a salvaged ship for a dollar, once the person buys it he buys all the liabilities and hassles that would go with it.

If the state were to give some incentive for developers it would be a different story but the state of Michigan is smashed and I couldn't see this happening.

stovelid

If the Hitsville USA house comes up for sale for a dollar, I'm on the next plane over though.

Dull and Boring

I think Scary Movie 4 summed up Detroit nicely!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=932vpuCmfJM&NR=1

bonerm

m@cc@ wrote: »

Only an idiot would bring a microphone to a gun fight.

Exactly!

[in scotish accent] "You shend one of his to Radioshack, he shends one of yoursh to the morgue"

m@cc@

Dull and Boring wrote: »

I think Scary Movie 4 summed up Detroit nicely!

I didn't know anyone had actually watched that.

old_aussie

Friends on holidays looked at these houses(just out of curiosity) two years ago and found that most houses were in excess of fifty years old and although they looked ok in pictures they were rotten to the core.

Renovations were not possible, you had to pull the building down and rebuild.

Some have 10's of thousands of dollars owing in taxes and dues to the city.

Some areas (whole blocks) in the business district were boarded-up and just rotting away.

Squatters everywhere, you would not risk any investment in the area. Huge slums for sq. miles.

minidazzler

m@cc@ wrote: »

Only an idiot would bring a microphone to a gun fight.

Fecker! I was taking a drink when I read that and started choking because I laughed!!!

g5fd6ow0hseima

How's the music scene in Detroit?

Run_to_da_hills

Cristiano Flabby Shopkeeper wrote: »

How's the music scene in Detroit?

Here

InTheTrees

If you want some value try Miami or even las vegas. Prices there are almost as low (those $1 places are a scam) and dropping all the time.

IrishManSaipan

Can one purchase a property without being resident in the US?

I like the idea of having a "property portfolio".:)

Dudess

Tail Wagger wrote: »

Back in the early 80s the same thing happened in parts of England. With the Miners strike and the eventual close down of the mines in the North East of England. Newcastle / Leeds/ and parts of Yorkshire.

I remember watching a documentary about one particular area where couples who ha bought their homes and rared their families, The most they could get for their homes was in the region of £500. some houses that had gone derelict were selling in the pub on a Saturday night 2 for the price of 1 @£;10 for the 2

I know a guy from Middlesborough in North East England who lived near a house going for £1,000 - greedy ****ers. :mad:

dlofnep

I lived in Flint, Michigan for a while and the houses there in some parts were dirt cheap. 15-20k was the average price of a house in one area. And they weren't all that bad either.. Bungalow with basement. Just shady neighbours!

m@cc@

InTheTrees wrote: »

(those $1 places are a scam)

And it also turns out the Never Ending story is less than two hours long. :mad:

Diageio_Man

TECHNO!

m@cc@

IrishManSaipan wrote: »

Can one purchase a property without being resident in the US?

I like the idea of having a "property portfolio".:)

I wonder to they could Fex-Ex it. Would be worth asking. :pac:

InTheTrees

IrishManSaipan wrote: »

Can one purchase a property without being resident in the US?

I like the idea of having a "property portfolio".:)

Sure, I think so.

Interesting question actually, I wonder if there's any residency loopholes that can be taken advantage of?

I imagine the district fees will still add up. Lawyers fees, title searches etc.

Property in the US is subject to Property tax. Its like rates. but its yearly and based on an appraisal. You'd have to keep that paid up.

InTheTrees

m@cc@ wrote: »

And it also turns out the Never Ending story is less than two hours long. :mad:

I was gutted...

:cool: