Artist Buy House for $100, Try to Fix It Up

**cman710** · June-17-09, 04:01 PM

Today, CNN had this interesting article about several artists who bought a home for $100 and are trying to remake the house in using creative methods:

[[CNN) -- If an e-mail popped up in your inbox promising a house for $100, you'd expect to see it sent from guy in Nigeria asking you to wire him several thousand dollars first.

Zeb Smith lies on his front lawn and spends a quiet afternoon with his neighbors.
But this depressed housing market dream is real. And Detroit, Michigan, artist Jon Brumit and his wife Sarah are living it.
The couple never counted on owning a home.
"It's not that we have a little money," Jon Brumit said, laughing. "I'm saying we have no money."
But the couple began entertaining the idea of a permanent nest when their friends Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert, also artists, started taking advantage of foreclosures in the city, where the average home price dipped to $11,533 in April, according to the Detroit Association of Realtors.
Dragging down the average are homes are long abandoned or foreclosed on that are selling for pennies on the dollar. Detroit already had the lowest market value houses in Michigan before the latest rounds of job losses at GM and other huge employers, market analysts say.
"Those artists are doing a good thing; they are at least helping to stabilize neighborhoods that would be all but lost," said Mike Shedlock, an investment adviser who blogs frequently about Detroit's economy.
For less than a few thousand dollars, Cope and Reichert snapped up a dilapidated bungalow in a north Detroit neighborhood called "BanglaTown," for its unexpected mix of Bangladeshis, African-Americans, Polish and Ukrainians and the occasional shady character.

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Click link for the rest of the story

EDIT: Link fixed

**Alley** · June-17-09, 04:05 PM

more power to them if they can make it work!

**Homer** · June-17-09, 05:17 PM

Your link to story died........ http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/17/det...mes/index.html

Here is another

**Detroitej72** · June-17-09, 05:29 PM

Their story was featured a month or so ago on 20/20 as well. In addition to the artists mentioned in the article, there are some German artists interested in purchasing property and also someone who is starting an urban bee farm.

That, coupled with the redevelopment of the former North Detroit General into a school, clinic and nursing home, and the area has a pretty good chance of revival.

**Roq** · June-17-09, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by cman710

The couple never counted on owning a home.
"It's not that we have a little money," Jon Brumit said, laughing. "I'm saying we have no money."

They're in for a surprise when they get their tax bill.

**Maple Leaf Rag** · June-17-09, 06:34 PM

Aren't taxes $65 a year for everyone?

**Detroitej72** · June-17-09, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by Maple Leaf Rag

Aren't taxes $65 a year for everyone?

Only for the privileged[[and corrupt) few on clown council.

**barnesfoto** · June-17-09, 09:09 PM

a number of older, smaller cities are luring artists by offering cheap or free homes, the latest place to do this is Syracuse NY...

http://saltdistrict.com/artist-prope...ortunities.php

Of course, there's always been cheap homes for artists in Detroit..

**reddog289** · June-17-09, 11:48 PM

The 2 biggest factors that have kept me staying put in an inner ring suburb are
1) School age "daughter"
2)Girlfriend is afraid of Detroit
Other that that I would be willing to move to Detroit considering the time and conditions were right.. My place might look like an urban fortruss, Yet I would plant the vacant lots around me.

**HazenPingree** · June-18-09, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by reddog289

The 2 biggest factors that have kept me staying put in an inner ring suburb are
1) School age "daughter"
2)Girlfriend is afraid of Detroit
Other that that I would be willing to move to Detroit considering the time and conditions were right.. My place might look like an urban fortruss, Yet I would plant the vacant lots around me.

School age "daugher," eh? Does that mean what I think it means?

**daddeeo** · June-18-09, 12:49 PM

"Time and conditions were right"
Let's see ..back up fifty years and everything will be ok.

**reddog289** · June-18-09, 11:41 PM

Well let me explain myself. First off the the "daughter" will be a senior this coming school year and she loves her school,and I don't put much faith in the DPS anyway. Second of all I have one of them Mishda mortgages that I can't sell my house is I could without being penalized. Detroit was a city I considered moving to awhile back. If I were an artist I myself would try to take advantage of an deal like that. This has been brought up before, What would the taxes be on such a project like that?.
If you can get people to move to Detroit that are going to contribute to its growth and rebound, There had better be good reason for them to do so.