Richton - Monterey Street Tiny House Development.

[poobert]

I seriously in all honesty hate to be this guy, but:

A couple observations:

In Detroit, supply for homes outstrips demand. Over one in five homes is currently vacant.

Given the eras of surviving housing stock [[1910s - early 1950s, mostly), the living space is relatively small [[900 - 1500 sq ft), aside from a few formerly posh areas like IV, SF, PW, etc. Nowadays a McMansion in Macomb Township is at least 2000 sq. foot for today's, *ahem* discerning buyer.

...would it not make more sense to rehab existing vacant homes and then turn currently vacant parcels into something like [[saleable) greenspace? I mean, rather than adding to an oversupply [[at least in areas outside of the 'green zone').

I love small spaces, but never fully understood this "build shit that is kinda different for some reason" in a market like Detroit's, other than it is cute and hip. My disclaimer is that I fully understand that demand is entirely different at, say, Canfield and Second [[build whatever) compared to say, Linwood and Davison[[may God have mercy upon your immortal soul). Unfortunately, the proverbial Linwood and Davison is still most of the city, where they're building this stuff, and where demand is nonexistent.

I'm worried that it will end up like this:http://www.detroiturbex.com/content/...nte/index.html. Oh, how I remember that.

I mean, why do we do this shit? It is like the trolley to nowhere.

[mwilbert]

I seriously in all honesty hate to be this guy, but:

A couple observations:

In Detroit, supply for homes outstrips demand. Over one in five homes is currently vacant.

Given the eras of surviving housing stock [[1910s - early 1950s, mostly), the living space is relatively small [[900 - 1500 sq ft), aside from a few formerly posh areas like IV, SF, PW, etc. Nowadays a McMansion in Macomb Township is at least 2000 sq. foot for today's, *ahem* discerning buyer.

...would it not make more sense to rehab existing vacant homes and then turn currently vacant parcels into something like [[saleable) greenspace? I mean, rather than adding to an oversupply [[at least in areas outside of the 'green zone').

I love small spaces, but never fully understood this "build shit that is kinda different for some reason" in a market like Detroit's, other than it is cute and hip. My disclaimer is that I fully understand that demand is entirely different at, say, Canfield and Second [[build whatever) compared to say, Linwood and Davison[[may God have mercy upon your immortal soul). Unfortunately, the proverbial Linwood and Davison is still most of the city, where they're building this stuff, and where demand is nonexistent.

I'm worried that it will end up like this:http://www.detroiturbex.com/content/...nte/index.html. Oh, how I remember that.

I mean, why do we do this shit? It is like the trolley to nowhere.

You do realize that these weren't built for the market? They were financed by people who wanted to do this for a specific target population that isn't in the market. In my opinion, they could have spent their money better, but there's no "we" doing something stupid here. It isn't like there is a shortage of vacant lots in the city either.

[archfan]

In Detroit, supply for homes outstrips demand. Over one in five homes is currently vacant.

...would it not make more sense to rehab existing vacant homes and then turn currently vacant parcels into something like [[saleable) greenspace? I mean, rather than adding to an oversupply [[at least in areas outside of the 'green zone').

My first thought was the same, but:

- It would be hard to acquire a number of contiguous houses to build a community like this. Any place with that much stock is probably occupied.
- The remaining houses in Dexter/Linwood are pretty large - probably more than the targeted folks would want to take on.
- The smaller houses tend to be farther out - away from jobs and needed services.

There may be a need for a charity that gathers volunteers, refurbishes a house [[like this one) and gives/rents it to a deserving family. It doesn't sound like who the Cass Community is trying to help.

[softailrider]

I seriously in all honesty hate to be this guy, but:

A couple observations:

In Detroit, supply for homes outstrips demand. Over one in five homes is currently vacant.

Given the eras of surviving housing stock [[1910s - early 1950s, mostly), the living space is relatively small [[900 - 1500 sq ft), aside from a few formerly posh areas like IV, SF, PW, etc. Nowadays a McMansion in Macomb Township is at least 2000 sq. foot for today's, *ahem* discerning buyer.

...would it not make more sense to rehab existing vacant homes and then turn currently vacant parcels into something like [[saleable) greenspace? I mean, rather than adding to an oversupply [[at least in areas outside of the 'green zone').

I love small spaces, but never fully understood this "build shit that is kinda different for some reason" in a market like Detroit's, other than it is cute and hip. My disclaimer is that I fully understand that demand is entirely different at, say, Canfield and Second [[build whatever) compared to say, Linwood and Davison[[may God have mercy upon your immortal soul). Unfortunately, the proverbial Linwood and Davison is still most of the city, where they're building this stuff, and where demand is nonexistent.

I'm worried that it will end up like this:http://www.detroiturbex.com/content/...nte/index.html. Oh, how I remember that.

I mean, why do we do this shit? It is like the trolley to nowhere.

I drove by that Northpoint project today. It looks like 20 to 30% of those houses are occupied. A few of those houses actually look okay. I couldn’t believe how the roof coverings on some of those houses are totally worn out after 15 years. What kind of terrible building materials did they use? $120,000.00 for that crap, in that area?