Detroit Real Estate

I was down helping two different clients buy a home for themselves in Detroit.  Sadly Detroit has so many financial problems and this housing crisis is only adding to Detroit's problems.  With the crime and poor schools thousands of Detroit's residents have fled the city.  It will be interesting to see home many people actually live in the city after the 2010 census.

After showing houses yesterday I was dismayed to see how many empty homes, how many homes that have been destroyed by fire and theft.  Without good home values nobody will be willing to invest in the homes and have to put $20,000 into a home that will only be worth $10,000.  That is the problem Detroit is facing.

But the next problem Detroit is facing is the hundreds of vacant abandoned homes.  Homes that won't bring in tax revenue.  Homes that now have become a liability for the City of Detroit.  How will the city ever pay for the removal of all those destroyed homes.  Who can afford it?

Homes that have become trash dumps.  Here is one filled with old tires.

Here is a whole row of homes that have been stripped of the bricks.  Other homes are just boarded up unable to be rented.

This neighborhood I was in, was a neighborhood a good friend had grown up in.  Here is his house.  It is still in good shape.  But there were over 20 homes in 2 blocks were vacant, burnt, or destroyed.