detroit? wtfs goin on here?!

[Law Grandeur]

Its probably in some shit hole ghost town/ghetto

lets look for big foot!

[Dv8]

Buy for the land, not the building.

[owequitit]

I see, though 1900 now to 17,000 is still well above a 100% gain (more like 1000%) which is good no matter how you look at it (when the market comes back up)



Yea when you look at it on large scale, I guess a loss has to be taken to free up some money, to allow money to be lent out to others.
Which inturn MAKES the money for the banks through interest.

Yes, but the reason I said you had to be careful, is because you could easily spend $20K+ fixing a house like that, and before the downturn, it would only sell for $17K. But, if you could rejuvenate the hood, then you could probably make many times your money back.

[ChIoVnIdCa]

Saving 200 to 300k on a house is not worth living with scum or getting killed. (not saying poor people in general are scum)

[owequitit]

Saving 200 to 300k on a house is not worth living with scum or getting killed. (not saying poor people in general are scum)

There is some truth to that. However, if many of the houses are sold, then it wouldn't be hard to turn it around.

In fact, homeownership is the largest and most effective crime reduction tool available. Give people their own home, and they run the bad dudes out of town.

[evil_demon_01]

Yes, but the reason I said you had to be careful, is because you could easily spend $20K+ fixing a house like that, and before the downturn, it would only sell for $17K. But, if you could rejuvenate the hood, then you could probably make many times your money back.

Ahhh, I'm still learning
Good point Scott, making money only to end up losing it is no way to do it.
What prices are the "outskirts" (semi good areas) going for?

Mind you those houses are obviously untenanted, so there wouldn't be many people (good or bad) in that area, correct? (Excuse my geographical/area knowledge of America as to how big/how many people are there in that area)
Which would mean if people were buying in, for the purpose of renovating the area reputation would change?

Saving 200 to 300k on a house is not worth living with scum or getting killed. (not saying poor people in general are scum)

Everyone's life is priceless, I agree with that.

[Night Wolf]

Its probably in some shit hole ghost town/ghetto

lol just what I though. when I think of detroit I think of gangs, crime, & ghetto

[owequitit]

Ahhh, I'm still learning
Good point Scott, making money only to end up losing it is no way to do it.
What prices are the "outskirts" (semi good areas) going for?

Mind you those houses are obviously untenanted, so there wouldn't be many people (good or bad) in that area, correct? (Excuse my geographical/area knowledge of America as to how big/how many people are there in that area)
Which would mean if people were buying in, for the purpose of renovating the area reputation would change?

No problem. Detroit is located up in the very north. In fact, right across the Detroit river is Canada. It is very cold, and very wet, and very dreary.

As for the surrounding area, I think there are like 3-4 million people still living in that area, but the city itself is quite interesting. Gone is the heyday of the domestic automakers, where the city was booming and doing well economically. I am not going to lie, Detroit has always been kind of dingy, but it wasn't always broke. Anyway, I haven't been around the city, but I can tell you from flying over that there are entire neighborhoods that are completely abandoned. Like no cars, no people, no nothing. Blocks and blocks of houses like that. You know that if you can tell from the air that you don't want to be there, you REALLY don't want to be there. It is kind of sad too, because they are mostly average middle class homes, with many nice red brick places and it probably wouldn't be bad at all if they could figure out how to economically fix it. As it is, there are SO many abandoned houses, that Detroit has asked for a grant from the government to demolish 7800 homes that are really bad. Crime in Detroit has actually gone DOWN over the last few years, because there is nothing left to vandalize and steal!

It is also crime ridden and corrupt all the way up to the top. There is so much drug trafficing and organized crime it isn't funny. I don't know how could clean it up. They don't either. In addition to fighting that stuff, which you KNOW won't go willingly, what does Detroit really have to offer? It is cold, and dingy etc. And when I say cold, I mean cold. It isn't uncommon for them to 30-40 below ZERO (*F) in the winter.

The outskirts are not as bad, but overall, the Michigan economy has been shrinking steadily since the 1960's-1970's. The prices outside of Detroit proper tend to rise to a more normal midwestern price point. They aren't as inflated as some other parts of the country, and tend to be more steady.

[stewie]

like Dv8 said, buy for the land not the house, i dont care if the house is falling apart...knock it down, wait 10 years, see whats happend, if the area is improving, sell the lot for 300k, if not, just sell it anyways and possibly take a loss or a slight gain...i wish this would happen in canada....all i know is my family(cousins n all) own everything we have(houses cars boats..)id sure like to jump on some of these houses...

[cb95spd]

well put everyone..

one thing you forgot.. they are crack houses.. lol
how are you gonna get the crack dealer out of there? lol

[PowderedMilkMan]

It's probably because the Red Wings aren't going to win the Stanley cup this year so all the band wagon fans are moving to California.

[gloryaccordy]

mind You If People Start Buying Them And Re-renovating Them, You Generally Get Better People In The Area, Which Makes The Area Better Overall.

Thing with that though is the economy is fucked, and places like Detroit and Cleveland are the hardest hit. Even if you fixed all the houses up, there would have to be some kind of industries or sectors in the area to support the people living there.

At best, the only recovery I could see there would be some manufacturer or corporate headquarters buying everything up and moving all their people out there. Problem with that though, as we are seeing with the failure of the Big 3, is that if that company fails, the "company town" fails even harder.

There is no money to be made in a neighborhood where homes are going for $1,000... it's a feedback loop of a lack of demand & industry

*EDIT* Scott makes a great point about the corruption in Detroit. Two words: Kwame Brown.