Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1

[katty]

more: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/METRO/808130360

Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1
Ron French / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- One dollar can get you a large soda at McDonald's, a used VHS movie at 7-Eleven or a house in Detroit.

The fact that a home on the city's east side was listed for $1 recently shows how depressed the real estate market has become in one of America's poorest big cities.

And it still took 19 days to find a buyer.

The sale price of the home may be an anomaly, but illustrates both the depths of the foreclosure crisis in Detroit and the rapid scuttling of vacant homes in some of the city's impoverished neighborhoods.

[isentropic]

1. It might not have been a bargain.

:shrug:

[BlooInBloo]

2. The house was gutted.

[tbyg52]

3. Whoever bought it would still have to do something about the property

and pay taxes on it. Too bad a neighborhood for anyone to want the responsibility, I guess. I am so sad for our country.

[On the Road]

4. That's Not a Bad Property for a Dollar

I was expecting some burned-out hellhole next to factories and sewer drains. The neighborhood's shabby, but it has the layout to be very livable if the area recovers.



Five or six years ago, Baltimore was giving away hundreds of houses for almost nothing. The city has undergone a lot of renovation since then, and many of those houses are worth $60-100. A few in hot neighborhoods are worth a lot more. Hopefully Detroit will follow the same pattern.

I personally bought six townhouses in Baltimore for $20-38,000. They are not free money by means -- they require work, generate a lot of stress, and a lot of people go bankrupt. If you buy them to live there, you may have to deal with a high crime rate. It usually takes years for them to pay off. But they're a good deal over a 10-to-20-year horizon.

[Kweli4Real]

5. Here's a thought ...

The government or a non-profit could buy the house and lease it to low income renters with the rent going towards rehabing the property. This would stablize the neighborhood. After, say, 5 years of living in the property, the renter obtains the title to do what they wish with it ... continue living there or selling it.