STOCK MARKET WATCH - Monday, 20 February 2012

[Demeter]

59. Detroit squatters may be allowed to keep foreclosed homes

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20120206/FREE/120209942

Wayne County will send people door to door to offer thousands of foreclosed Detroit homes for as little as $500, a move that would keep a roof over the head of squatters and possibly get properties back on the tax rolls. More than 6,000 Detroit homes, foreclosed because taxes weren’t paid, didn’t sell at auction last fall. The county treasurer’s office doesn’t want to see them abandoned and is willing to negotiate with anyone living inside, including owners who no longer have a right to the property. “A vacant house is not going to help anybody,” Deputy Treasurer Eric Sabree told The Detroit News.

Charles Brown, 62, said he has been squatting in his home for about a year. He said he had installed windows and doors and uses the fireplace for heat. “I am still doing a lot of work,” Brown said. “It would mean a lot if I could keep it.” ...A neighbor who rents, Freda Armstrong, said she would have purchased Brown’s house at auction. “That is a brick house. I would have fixed it up,” she said. “A lot of people don’t even know these houses are for sale.”

A similar program last year led to the sale of 1,200 homes. The city of Detroit isn’t endorsing what county tax officials are doing with the real estate. Ed McNeil, who negotiates labor contracts for union-represented city employees, said it seems unfair to reward people when someone in the same neighborhood may never have missed a tax bill.

Indeed, retiree George Philson, 63, pays $1,800 a year. “I would rather have them meet their obligation like I am meeting my obligation,” he said. John Mogk, a Wayne State University law professor who studies land issues, said 12,300 Detroit parcels were foreclosed because of unpaid taxes last year. “There is no end in sight,” Mogk said. “The problem is just so large and overwhelming in Detroit.”...The county’s offer could keep Durand and Sharon Micheau in their bungalow, which was purchased in 2010. They lost it because they couldn’t pay three years of unpaid taxes, fines and interest of $17,900. “We are not looking to dodge our responsibility,” said Durand, 42. “If I could pay the taxes right now, I would, but I don’t have the money.”