Detroit Real Estate

Mayor Dave Bing is hoping The City of Detroit can make a turnaround. With fewer residents, lower property taxes the City of Detroit is on the ropes.

There is talk of consolidating the City, but as an real estate person with a background in mortgages I don't see how that can happen.  How will they decide which areas and homes to bulldoze and which areas to keep.  There lies the first problem.  Most of the nice, kept up area lie on the outskirts of Detroit following Outer Drive.  Many of the older homes are near Detroit's city center and along the freeway corridors.  

What do you do?  The key in my thought is to bulldoze a square mile so you don't have a checkboard.  You don't want homes in one block and the next vacant.  The key is to relieve city services from a designated area of the city.  So there is no police station needed there, no snow plowing needed to be done, no street lamps, or road repair needed.

But the issue will boil down to money.  How will Detroit pay for this re-orginization?  They don't have the money for good basic city services.  They are closing parks because they don't have the money, so where will this money come from.  The federal government can't fund this huge problem the city is facing.

Detroit I am afraid is going to be the poster child of Big city decay and ruin.  Homeowners are going to sue to stay in their homes and for more money than their homes are worth.  In the last 365 days the average sales price of the 7113 Detroit homes that have sold is $12,942.

Many Detroiters owe more than that on their homes.  Will the mortgage companies take a loss on the homes?  I don't think so.  It costs more than $13,000 to do windows, furnace, and roof.  So will the city have to spend that money to rehab houses for the relocated homeowners?

Then add in all commercial buildings that are vacant and need to be torn down you have a monumental task of what to do and where to start.

I hope the City of Detroit can make a turnaround, but I think money will be the one obstacle that will keep Mayor Bing and the City of Detroit from rebounding.  But that is just my thoughts.