Detroit homes sell for $1 amid mortgage and car industry crisis

[Lars77]

One in five houses left empty as foreclosures mount and property prices drop by 80%



Some might say Jon Brumit overpaid when he stumped up $100 (£65) for a whole house. Drive through Detroit neighbourhoods once clogged with the cars that made the city the envy of America and there are homes to be had for a single dollar.

You find these houses among boarded-up, burnt-out and rotting buildings lining deserted streets, places where the population is shrinking so fast entire blocks are being demolished to make way for urban farms.


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

[Sherman A1]

1. Sad

Looks like a pretty good house from the curb.

[Vermontgrown]

2. Just like the banks

to take away a house for payments not made in the thousands, and then unload it for a few bucks. The banks are the enemy of home owners.

[midnight]

3. Really what is wrong with our banking system?

[Demeter]

4. It's not just the banks, for Detroit

Detroit has been abandoned since the riots of 1969, by the feds, the state, and finally the city itself. People can't make a go of it without jobs.

[Fire1]

16. It's the "67 Riots," and Detroit didn't start going down until

the election of the republican governor John Engler. Engler single handedly dismantled Detroit with no effort to get funding from the federal government.

[Demeter]

17. Yes, 1967. It was 1969 When My Family Left

Dad finished night school and got a job out of state.

[Demeter]

5. It's Entrepreneurs who think and act for themselves and their communities

that are going to lead us out of this. After the GOP, with Democratic collusion, has destroyed the nation and themselves, ordinary gutsy, reality-driven people will bring about a true shining city on a hill.

I have great hope for my native city.

[Lars77]

6. Could we see the early beginnings of something completely new?

Community gardens with free vegetables are popping up on empty land, artists moving in because of the extremely low cost. You think we're seeing the beginning of a huge hippie commune or something growing out of the ruins of the post-industrial city? :)

[Demeter]

8. I think we will see a new form of community

something different from suburbia and less inclined to provide comfort for the paranoid among us, who will not come out of the wilderness, not even in the face of starvation, some of them. Such a program, more interested in community than private property rights, will break down some long-unexamined beliefs.

Detroit was a city that worked very well. Plenty of people remember that, or have heard stories from their ancestors. I think that's why the GOP had to destroy it with abuse and neglect.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Here is proof of what you say. It brightened my spirit.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7842337

[Mopar151]

15. The OP mentioned "urban farms"

Sounds like some folks are already gettin' with the program.

[HooptieWagon]

18. Thats what I'm thinking

Sounds like a great opportunity for urban communes, artist communities, small farms and light manufacturing, a new university, internet retail business... there's so many possibilities.

[Mopar151]

7. Sounds like a budget retirement community. n/t

[Macoy]

9. Homes for the Homeless? Jobs for the Jobless?

Why can’t we find a homeless family, give them the house, drop off a pallet of fix’er up supplies…say $1,000 worth of paint, caulking, nails, hammers. Do that 20 times and wha-la you have a thriving block of families where you once had deserted streets. All for about $20,000 ...…or about what a banker would spend for one night out on the town.

Once the block is established, the families will need a grocery store…restaurants , hardware stores, book stores..mmm I wonder were Detroit could find the surplus labor to fill all the new jobs created by giving homes to homeless families?


Macoy

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. You ARE assuming the homeless have the money

to pay for utilities for the house, upkeep, groceries at the grocery store, money for those
restaurants, hardware stores, etc. Yes?

Assuming that, sound like a great job for Habitat for Humanity.

[radhika]

10. Artists, Retirees and Home Business Types

There are many groups that could rebuild cities like Detroit. All of them need low-cost housing and get their income outside the standard 9-5 employee route. A community of creators and growers with disposable income would spawn more small businesses to provide them with services and ta-da! A city is born. Again. I'd consider moving there if it wasn't for the cold. I prefer the Southwest.

And just think if Americans had Single Payer healthcare. How many of us would give that type of living a shot.

[wolfgangmo]

13. And these are the very people who have revitalized every low cost neighborhood

in any city. I think every person can think of a neighborhood in their city where it used to be kind of depressed and after the artists, etc moved it, it became a hip area to hang out in.

What you are talking about is creating community.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I found the website of the Blight Busters mentioned in the article.

Anyone interested in Detroit might want to look these guys up.

http://www.blightbusters.org/

AND...there is something similiar in New Orleans !!!!

http://www.cityofno.com/Portals/Portal57/portal.aspx?portal=57&tabid=2

"Welcome to Blight Busters
Fight blight! Take advantage of several new programs designed to aid you in the acquisition and rehabilitation of abandoned and blighted properties throughout the City of New Orleans."