Motor City Meltdown... Detroit files for Bankruptcy protection...

madmax

I saw where an entire city block was up for sale for $260K. That got me interested so I looked at real estate there. The cheapest house was going for $36. A huge beautiful mansion was going for $499K. Around $500 the houses start looking livable and above 30K there are a lot that are pretty good looking. No one should be homeless there!

txcoastal1

Many homes that look decent from the outside have been raided for scrap and copper


http://www.michigannow.org/2012/01/20/copper-theft-part-1-real-estate/

Phasewolf

My friend lived there for a year because it was cheep. His truck was stolen in the first month and the house he was in got tagged by a drive by shooting wile he was at work.

Thanks but no thanks.

BlueFox

Sounds like a job for Robo-Cop. Sometimes science fiction hits the nail on the head.

cnh

If that's the case then Hollywood can "save" Detroit with a series of Apocalyptic Blockbusters SHOT on site!

cnh

tonyb

cnh wrote: »

If that's the case then Hollywood can "save" Detroit with a series of Apocalyptic Blockbusters SHOT on site!

cnh

Except in Detroit they use real bullets and it's the Hollywood folks who would get shot. Hows that for reality tv.

nooshinjohn

tonyb wrote: »

Except in Detroit they use real bullets and it's the Hollywood folks who would get shot. Hows that for reality tv.

I'd buy THAT for a dollar!!!!

WLDock

I'm born and raised in Detroit. I lived in the city until 2006, then moved across 8 Mile to Southfield. Night and day difference but like many cities in MI its going through its own decline as well. Last year I relocated to NW Indiana because the company I work for relocated our headquarters there.

Now, that I live so close to Chicago I can't help but think of the history of both cities. Seems Detroit just took a wrong economic turn in the past and relied on the auto industry for far too long. I find this article interesting:
http://www.dailyillini.com/opinion/columns/article_ec594772-7f06-11e2-bd05-0019bb30f31a.html

Yes, there is much to be learned from what happened to Detroit!

Nevertheless, I'm a Detroiter and thought that I would always live there. I've been around the Country and and to different parts of the World but lived in Detroit most my life. I'm a part of that second-third generation that bought their parents’ house for cheap and thought that I could live much cheaper than my colleagues at work that lived in the more expensive suburban areas. My house was a nice modest 50's, 2 story, 1600 Sq. Ft, 4BR, basement home in one of the many nice neighborhoods I grew up in. However, this area on the Northeast side was suburban like in the late 70's early 80's. Here is a picture of the house around 2004, my son riding his much beloved BRUM car: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2524/1425/1600/PDC_0074.jpg

I remember one time saying that if I could pick my house up and drop it off just a 15 minute drive away to a city called Grosse Pointe it would be worth 3-4 times more. Still,...after adding up the expensive insurance, taxes, etc. Then the increasing crime and declining city services, decreased home value, it got too be too much. Myself, like many diehard younger Detroiters gave up and moved out. I have family and friends that still there but there are many that left or have plans to leave.

The news hit home and I think it’s terrible but it really did not come as a surprise. I feel bad for those that are affected because things could get worse if they start cutting back. It could get ugly for several that I know that are on a city pension. IMO, it is going to get worst before it gets better. Still, many from the outside are buying up the city. There are many younger suburban types taking advantage of some of the newly developed areas. Detroit has a lot of land, is right off a river, next door to Canada, and has what I think could be an oasis, Belle Isle island. All the makings for a Metropolis! Maybe my kids or their kids will live to see it but Detroit will come back some day.

For those that have not been to Detroit and have only heard all the negative things about the city take a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIHhBoYuy8

Now, think about how much these homes would have been worth if they were in a nicer area before the bottom fell out. Detroit, always has had some nice pockets around the city. Maybe these home will survive and come back to true value someday.

Jhayman

Or good old Dr.Detroit

BlueFox wrote: »

Sounds like a job for Robo-Cop. Sometimes science fiction hits the nail on the head.

Jhayman

Detroit has a lot of land, is right off a river, next door to Canada, and has what I think could be an oasis, Belle Isle island. All the makings for a Metropolis! Maybe my kids or their kids will live to see it but Detroit will come back some day.

As Cheech say" You can keep on knocking but you can't come in"

Just wait eventually once enough people leave then the wealthy developers come in build Police Stn's, close down the public schools force all remaining impoverished people out, then build Nice Condo's and things and restore Detroit to it's Glory but now only the wealthy can afford to live there..

WLDock

Jhayman wrote: »

Just wait eventually once enough people leave then the wealthy developers come in build Police Stn's, close down the public schools force all remaining impoverished people out, then build Nice Condo's and things and restore Detroit to it's Glory but now only the wealthy can afford to live there..

Yeah, that is the theory of many. Consider the fact that over the last several years there are been bus loads of investers from Asia, Germany, etc buying up land in Detroit. I am sure this land will be held and passed on to the next generation until the value goes up.

tonyb

Jhayman wrote: »

Just wait eventually once enough people leave then the wealthy developers come in build Police Stn's, close down the public schools force all remaining impoverished people out, then build Nice Condo's and things and restore Detroit to it's Glory but now only the wealthy can afford to live there..

I see....so essentially your saying turn it into another L.A. or New York. Do I have to paint the picture or do you see nothing wrong with that theory ?

Jhayman

By all means paint away..
Do I want that to happen of course not, but once it starts it won't stop till the real estate is pushing $1500-2500 PSF.
Right now in Newyork there are brokers/builders pushing to get $3000 PSF just because they want to, and ofcourse the buyers think hey it costs more so it must be better..
Like the old analogy of the cheap wine in a nice restaurant not selling so they raised the price of the wine and hey now they are sold out..

tonyb wrote: »

I see....so essentially your saying turn it into another L.A. or New York. Do I have to paint the picture or do you see nothing wrong with that theory ?

BlueFox

What is wrong with LA and New York? Are we saying Detroit is worse off if they end up like either of those two cities?

tonyb

I don't think Detroit can be any worse off than they are right now. However, rebuilding the city on the same principles as a NY or L.A., even a Chicago is just another time bomb waiting to explode.

schwarcw

From the Boston Globe, 2008:



Frank's fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco

By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / September 28, 2008



'THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it."


That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best." And that philosophy goes "back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, 'Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.' "

In fact, that isn't what Reagan said. His actual words were: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Were he president today, he would be saying much the same thing.

Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits -- many of whom have been learning lately just how pitiless the private sector’s discipline can be -- they weren't the ones who "got us into this mess." Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else.

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.

As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"

Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.

Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he can find one suspect in the nearest mirror.

Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

tonyb

We can talk Barney Frank all day but that will just get tempers flared and the thread shut down.

Besides, anyone with half a brain knows why Detroit finds itself where it is, thing is....what to do about it. If one thing stands to reason, it's the fact that laws are made for political posturing and redistribution, not to actually solve a problem.

madmax

Check out this mansion for $499K. I put the address in google maps and and navigated around the area looking at houses from the street. What an awesome looking place! http://www.mihomesrealestate.com/property_information.asp?mls=212110374

Nice writeup WLDock.

txcoastal1

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/29/chinese-investors-betting-on-detroit-comeback-buy-up-real-estate/

And the Chinese won't be the only ones

Polkie2009

Is Barney Frank the guy who always sounds like he's got a big,huge loogie stuck in his throat when he talks?

Jhayman

There's a couple of good Documentaries that explain what will happens to City's in turmoil..
The One Percent and Born Rich are good watches..
To quote and Developer in The One Percent" first you build a Big Police Stn, then you tear down the Basketball Courts and lastly you close down the public schools that POOR people attend.."
It blows your mind..

scottyboy76

I will check those out if they are on netflix, another documentary worth checking out is "The Pruitt Igoe Myth"

Its about americas first public housing project, good people trying to help others by just giving other good people things, and the resulting nightmare years later

"Tell me and i will forget" is about south africas e.m.t.s efforts to do their jobs in their country, the average citizens exposure to crime,and the unbelievable descent of that country, im afraid it reflects of many of our citys futures.

nooshinjohn

Polkie2009 wrote: »

Is Barney Frank the guy who always sounds like he's got a big,huge loogie stuck in his throat when he talks?

I am almost certain it's not a loogie... but yes, that's him.:eek:

tonyb

txcoastal1 wrote: »

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/29/chinese-investors-betting-on-detroit-comeback-buy-up-real-estate/

And the Chinese won't be the only ones

Interesting.....so I guess this means we finally realized we can sell the Chinese our crap while buying theirs.

WLDock

madmax wrote: »

Check out this mansion for $499K. I put the address in google maps and and navigated around the area looking at houses from the street. What an awesome looking place! http://www.mihomesrealestate.com/property_information.asp?mls=212110374
Nice writeup WLDock.

This area is just west of the North part of Woodward Ave. and is the Historic District PALMER WOODS. Surrounded by other similar areas, SHERWOOD FOREST, GREEN ACRES, UNIVERSITY DISTRICT. There are homes in these areas that will blow your mind especially if the only thing you know about Detroit is negativity. Hell, I was born there and many of these home are still amazing to me.

http://www.palmerwoods.org/
http://www.sherwoodforestdetroit.org/
http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/categories/university_district.php
http://www.udcaonline.com/
http://universitydistrictdetroit.org/
http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/categories/green_acres.php

Need Your Own Wine Cellar? $219K Buys This 3 Bedroom Tudor
http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2013/06/need-your-own-wine-cellar-219k-buys-this-3-bedroom-tudor.php
http://www.oconnordetroit.com/properties/residential/20161_cant/1.htm

WLDock

Also, INDIAN VILLAGE on the East side and BOSTON-EDISON in the Center are other Historic Districts with stunning homes.

http://www.historicindianvillage.org/
http://www.historicbostonedison.org/

Some of the homes in these areas are HUGE (4000-10,000+ Sq Ft) and are selling for tens of thousand...Sad really....
http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/categories/bostonedison.php

The 10 Bedroom 9800 Sq Ft James Couzens Mansion Is Listed for $80 K
http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2012/10/the-james-couzens-house-has-been-listed-for-80-k.php



Top Ten Under Twenty: Detroit's Best Buys Under $20K
http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2013/02/top-ten-under-twenty-detroits-best-buys-under-20k.php

WLDock

As bad as it may seem in the City...if one ever finds themself in the area and want to take a look around....this is a nice list of things to do and see:

http://www.time.com/time/travel/cityguide/article/0,31489,1994456,00.html