Originally Posted by
nain rouge
East English Village benefits from having superior architecture, having originally been built for what I would call the upper middle class. Most struggling Detroit neighborhoods, meanwhile, are just early prototypes for middle or even lower middle class suburbia, and there's just not a lot of demand for that from buyers with choices. People today either want newness with the biggest lawn and most house possible, or they want an urban environment. If you don't believe me, look at the census trends, with inner cities and exurbs generally gaining population while inner ring suburbs slowly decline.
Classic suburbia is now look at more as settling between the two aforementioned styles of living. "Well, I'd love to live in Detroit, but...", or "I'd love to live in Macomb Township, but I don't have the money...". The only thing that could save a Detroit neighborhood like Osborne is decent schools and low crime. That's it. Then, people stuck in between could say stuff like, "The driveway is kinda narrow and I don't have much of a yard, but the price was great and schools are decent, plus it seems pretty safe here."
In my experience, those are the factors that drive the market. Anything else is just fantasy.