Detroit: For Sale in Bulk

[CDL.TO]

$10000 for 67 Properties, for sale on Craigslist.

http://detroit.craigslist.org/reb/1101517949.html

 

[torplanner]

How about a 4 bedroom house in Buffalo for $1
http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/2009/04/block-from-main-street-1.html

 

[Edward]

Times are certainly dire. That $1 house doesn't look too bad.

 

[Mustapha]

How about a 4 bedroom house in Buffalo for $1
http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/2009/04/block-from-main-street-1.html

If I could do the needed work myself I would buy it. Fortunate are those who can do good plumbing, carpentry, drywall and electrical, or all four.

 

[Hipster Duck]

That episode of the Simpsons where Bart buys a factor for a dollar is now becoming a reality!

The Buffalo house might make a good Urban Toronto summer retreat, although I think there might be a catch.

 

[ShonTron]

It's a few blocks from Allentown and Anchor Bar and only two blocks from the Utica NFTA station, where one can see the wonder of light rail.

Not quite in Allentown (on the wrong side of Main Street), but not the worst place to have a Buffalo house.

 

[fixBuffalo]

This particular house is located in an emerging neighborhood. In the past couple years 100m has been invested in arts/education and private investment is beginning to follow. Very cool spot.

One of the more interesting opportunities is one block away. I've been writing about it here.

http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/2009/03/woodlawn-row-house-looking-for-love.html

Every Saturday at 10am I lead a neighborhood walk. Here's a post from last Saturday.

http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/2009/04/todays-neighborhood-walk.html

There are a number of additional houses in the immediate neighborhood that would make an ideal weekend retreat from which you could explore and enjoy the amazing architectural heritage of this city.

 

[egotrippin]

So wait, that house in Buffalo is honestly just $1, with no strings attached? I'll buy it right now, unless there's something I'm missing. Hell I'll pay two bucks even if this turns into a bidding war.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

So wait, that house in Buffalo is honestly just $1, with no strings attached? I'll buy it right now, unless there's something I'm missing. Hell I'll pay two bucks even if this turns into a bidding war.

sounds too good to be true. maybe the walls bleed or something. save hundreds of thousands on a home but ya have to take out a mortgage to buy paper towels.

 

[jaycola]

$1 homes.

The “Good Neighbor†Direct Sale Program – HUD to Local Governments

During the past few years of its Management and Marketing (M&M) contracts, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has provided a unique opportunity for a local government entity such as a city, county, or Native American Tribe to purchase HUD homes for ONE DOLLAR.

Check out the HUD site for more info.

http://www.nhmsi.com/home_sales.html

 

[jaycola]

http://www.mcbreo.com/st_mimain.htm

http://hud2.towerauction.net/cgi-bin/e7_select_property.cgi?id=261652703&office=e7&state=MI

Check out some of the inventory in Detroit.

 

[fixBuffalo]

No catch. The city of Buffalo owns this house. It's 'homestead eligible' (meaning $1) if you have a plan and can demonstrate - bank statement or mortgage commitment - that you can rehab the house. That's it.

I've lived in the neighborhood for the past 14 years, one block from transit, 10 minutes to the airport - new projects, development and over 100m public investment in arts/education in the immediate neighborhood in the last 2 years.

Buffalo as 'urban cottage country' - fabulous idea!

 

[CDL.TO]

A Detroit City Block

North Side
South Side
(Large, stitched photos)

Description:

Last week I read in the morning paper about a street here where 60 out of 66 homes were vacant or abandoned on a single block. The reporter called it a "ghost street." Yesterday I found myself in the area. Other than an errant sofa, the street was completely empty, almost peaceful. I took a photo of every house on the north side of one block and then stitched them together. If you were to compare the current international housing crisis to a black hole sucking the equity out of our homes, this one-way street near the northern border of Detroit might just be the singularity: the point where the density of the problem defies anyone's ability to comprehend it. These homes started emptying in 2006.

Click on the image below to load a large file in your browser and then zoom and scroll right. This is the entire north side of the block: every home, every lot. You'll notice the fourth and seventh homes appear occupied. Pay attention to the state of all the other houses rather than the terrible stitching job.

This is just another virtually-abandoned block in Detroit. Eventually the burned houses will collapse; the boarded-up houses will burn. Someday it will all be green.

But this is what it looks like today.

*UPDATE*

I went back and took pictures of the houses on the south side of the road, just to show the extent of vacancy on this single block. Again, click on the image and try to ignore the stitching job.

Source

 

[Mustapha]

A Detroit City Block

North Side
South Side
(Large, stitched photos)

Description:

Last week I read in the morning paper about a street here where 60 out of 66 homes were vacant or abandoned on a single block. The reporter called it a "ghost street." Yesterday I found myself in the area. Other than an errant sofa, the street was completely empty, almost peaceful. I took a photo of every house on the north side of one block and then stitched them together. If you were to compare the current international housing crisis to a black hole sucking the equity out of our homes, this one-way street near the northern border of Detroit might just be the singularity: the point where the density of the problem defies anyone's ability to comprehend it. These homes started emptying in 2006.

Click on the image below to load a large file in your browser and then zoom and scroll right. This is the entire north side of the block: every home, every lot. You'll notice the fourth and seventh homes appear occupied. Pay attention to the state of all the other houses rather than the terrible stitching job.

This is just another virtually-abandoned block in Detroit. Eventually the burned houses will collapse; the boarded-up houses will burn. Someday it will all be green.

But this is what it looks like today.

*UPDATE*

I went back and took pictures of the houses on the south side of the road, just to show the extent of vacancy on this single block. Again, click on the image and try to ignore the stitching job.

Source

Good. Grief.

 

[adma]

And one must remind oneself: except maybe in an extraordinary situation I can't presently think of (more likely than not, a site being assembled for redevelopment), nothing like this exists in Toronto. At all. It's even a stretch to imagine it in Hamilton.

And all the more surreal given how many of those bungalows look like they would have been quite cozy and gentrifiably decent by Toronto or even Hamilton standards--and who knows, maybe these *were* streets which leftish-liberal optimists once eyed or held onto optimistically before the demographic pain grew too much to bear...