Detroit Real Estate

Yes Detroit's Devils night fires haven't stopped.  In fact they are up 42% over last year.  This year (2010) they had 169 fires over 119 fires in 2009.  Detroit has about 35-40 fires on a normal day.  There has been an increase in Devils's nights fires in the last two years, but it way down from the high of 800 fires in 1984.  Which is a good thing.

The Detroit fire chief says it is because there are so many abandoned homes.  I would probably agree with that.  They estimate that there are over 10,000 vacant/abandoned homes in Detroit.  With the average home sales price last year being around $12,000 it does not pay to buy a vacant home and fix it up.   You can get a decent home for $12,000.  Even if you got an abandoned home for free, by the time you put in a furnace, hot water heater, copper plumbing, and anything else that was stolen you would be over $12,000.  You would be losing money and have spent all the time doing the work when you could buy a home already done for $12,000.

I bet we will see a continuation of a rise in fires in Detroit on Devils night in the years to come because of all the vacant homes.  

Some real estate agents from another commented on this article on another blog and said they don't get it.   Years ago I believe the burning of abandoned homes started as a way for residents to voice their disatisfaction with the slowness of bulldozing the abandoned homes.  It was their way of getting rid of the homes and blaming it on the "undesirable drug dealers or vagrants".  Then everybody started in and it got out of control.

Now it has become a symbol of Detroit.  The burning of vacant homes.  Kind of sad isn't it?