New Homes in Detroit

[Strong]

As I have traveled throughout the city, I am surprised to see many new housing developments. These are large multi unit complexes, some replace old high rise projects and other replace vacate lots.
There's a new complex across the street from Motorcity Casino.
There's a new complex on Mound Rd at Nevada.
There's a new complex at Southfield Fwy and Chicago/Joy Rd.
There's a new group of homes in the Northend District along Oakland ave.
There's a new housing complex off East Jefferson near the Roostertail.


The Broderick Tower and Fort Shelby Hotel new lofts/apartments.


I talked with a guy who was inspecting the old Detroit News building on Lafayette St. for renovating it into apartment.

I am sure there are others.

The Great Detroit documentary, www.strongdetroit.net

[p69rrh51]

There's a new housing complex off East Jefferson near the Roostertail.

That project predates the mortgage meltdown. Its been in limbo since 2008.

[Goose]

most/all of the new home projects are stalled big time, there is one off jefferson where the spec homes covered in tyvek are boarded and unsold and the tyvec is wearing thin from exposure.... the lots are worth nothing, and the cost to build FAR exceeds any realized value once complete.....

[Parkguy]

There is active construction at Southfield/Joy, which is the old site of Herman Gardens. I passed by there on Joy yesterday, and crews were working on the new apartment building.

[Király]

Seeing brand new construction in the city that is unsold/abandoned/burned down is heartbreaking.

Like this: http://goo.gl/maps/NqWEf
Exit street view, and you can see that that house has already burned.

Or how about the south side of Ferris Street in Highland Park. Eleven brand new houses in the 2009 Google Street View photos: http://goo.gl/maps/0mIpE

Exit out of Street View into the 2012 aerial photo, and half of them have already been torn down.

[Bham1982]

There is active construction at Southfield/Joy, which is the old site of Herman Gardens. I passed by there on Joy yesterday, and crews were working on the new apartment building.

That is one development I will never get. How can they be claiming to be selling cheap tract homes for 150k when the average price of a home in the area is maybe 5-10k?

Is there some giant subsidy or something? Why would someone pay 30 times the average local price to live in a tract home in the ghetto?

And what's with the clusters of new homes in Brightmoor? That's an even worse location, and I see new homes scattered about all over the place. I also see the same in Highland Park and on some of the most devastated parts of the East Side.

What am I missing here? Who's buying these homes? Is it fraud?

[Rochelle St.]

I've seen new homes on Alter near Jefferson, also in the Houston-Whittier, Dickerson area.

[DTFellow]

A lot of these homes are built by Community Development Corporations funded by corporate donations from local businesses. I think U-SNAP-BAC [[http://www.usnapbac.org/) might be the organization building new scattered site housing over by Alter. Idea is that they are building new affordable housing to help stabilize eastside communities.

[Bham1982]

Idea is that they are building new affordable housing to help stabilize eastside communities.

I would guess that adding lots of new homes to a declining community would probably hasten decline. You're flooding the supply side and doing nothing to the demand side.

But who knows. It depends on a million factors, and new housing can certainly be a good thing. But the cheap tract house stuff I see looks worse than the older homes, IMO.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Are you guys talking about the Fox Creek development, by Alter Rd.?

http://detroiturbex.com/content/neig...eek/index.html

I asked Ken Cockrel about it a few weeks ago and he said he had forgotten all about it, and would bring it up in a general meeting. Apparently the development is open ended, and will presumably continue when the banks start lending again. Most of the property is owned by the city.

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...de-Development

[detroitsgwenivere]

This link talks about Cornerstone [[across from MotorCity):

http://www.dhcmi.org/DevelopmentSite...aspx?siteid=10


This is a good article about eastside housing development by Comm. Dev. Corps:

http://www.modeldmedia.com/features/neareastside07.aspx


Here's a link about Brightmoor's developers:

http://rebuildingbrightmoor.org/aboutus-history.htm

[Hamtragedy]

There are at least 200 "new" homes in Highland Park, east of Woodward from Ferris north. 90% are vacant, and the scraps are being sold at that "resale" garage btw. John R and Oakland.

The "build new and they will come" plan which permeated the Kilpatrick admin. [[and other urban areas) prior to the bubble bursting was an outright failure in Detroit. At Oakland and Caniff there is still a sign boasting "New Homes starting in the low $170's." There is a similar one at W, Outer Dr. east of Southfield.

[Shollin]

My aunt lives by Warren and Chalmers. About 10 years ago they built a row of brand new homes. They're all vacant now and have been picked clean. I actually boarded one up because drug dealers were using one of them. I walked inside and everything was gone. Wiring and plumbing literally ripped out of the walls. The house isn't even salvageable.

[Blueidone]

There are a few organizations in the City that promote building new homes for people to buy as opposed to new rental housing. I believe in this financial climate, rental housing [[whether subsidized or not) is a better place to put the available dollars.

Although getting funding at this point in time is very difficult, low to moderate income tax credit housing can be successful. The company I worked for up until the beginning of this year has built two small developments on the far east side and so far they have been successful. They are fully occupied and the residents are keeping the units in good shape for the most part.

People bought the houses in those new developments mentioned here back when people who should never have gotten mortgages based on their income and credit history. Then, when the bottom fell out, they couldn't keep up. Owners walked away and the scavengers took over. How sad that all that housing has gone to waste.

[MidTownMs]

My aunt lives by Warren and Chalmers. About 10 years ago they built a row of brand new homes. They're all vacant now and have been picked clean. I actually boarded one up because drug dealers were using one of them. I walked inside and everything was gone. Wiring and plumbing literally ripped out of the walls. The house isn't even salvageable.

About 6 months I worked in an area bounded by Van Dyke and Fairview between Mack and Sylvester. There were numerous new houses built in that area. Unfortunately before anyone had a chance to move in them they had already been vandalized.

[Jason]

I think for most of these someone gets their hands on some community development money, and so they find the cheapest, most easily assembled land. So you have these bizarre developments, a short row of new houses or an apartment building surrounded by urban wasteland and half destroyed neighborhoods. You could probably buy the remains of an entire block of houses for the price you'd pay to buy a new house in the same ghettotastic neighborhood. The only people who benefit from those developments are contractors and community activists who get lots of photo ops and ribbon cutting ceremonies. I think that should be part of the downsizing [[or whatever it's called) plan. Specify areas where it makes no sense for new development to happen. Deny all permits for new construction in those areas. Allow the owners to sell the empty land back to the city so they're not stuck with land they can't do anything with. Have the city be more aggressive in assisting developers find land in appropriate areas. There are a lot of problems in Detroit that aren't the city's fault, but I think this is an area where if the city was more competent there would be a big difference in a lot of neighborhoods.

[Honky Tonk]

You have to go back in time to the housing boom. There was a frenzied land grab which caused a lot of these developments in "strange" locations. Develpers were counting on people needing housing, buying and moving into these places. Then more of the surrrounding property would be developed. As the market bottomed out, then went stagnant, no one bought these houses, and the scrappers helped themselves. Now there's another frenzy in Midtown. I hope it lasts.

[downtownguy]

I talked with a guy who was inspecting the old Detroit News building on Lafayette St. for renovating it into apartment.

I'm sure you're referring to the old Detroit Free Press building. Both papers now occupy The Detroit News building.

But tell us more about your conversation with the guy inspecting the building. Who was he? Did he say he might buy it? Is he a local developer? It has long been talked about turning the building into lofts/apartments, but I haven't heard anything for some time now.

[Strong]

Another set of relatively new housing are those across from Comerica Park. It looks like they are pretty full.

[Hamtragedy]

Another set of relatively new housing are those across from Comerica Park. It looks like they are pretty full.

Those ugly-ass thangs were built in the mid 90's and sold at un-Detroit-like prices then. Many did not survive the foreclosure crisis, including one owned by councilman Pugh. Don't know their current status, but seeing how Midtown south to downtown is at 98% - plus capacity, I imagine they're lived in now, and some for a bargain.

[Zacha341]

It's still about location. There are/ were some new homes built off Joy Road and Yosemite not far from Grand River, but I'd never live in that area.

[Zacha341]

I hear those are fairly well built as the paper-thin nature of those kind of dwelling go. Now it the time to buy one!!! The early purchase suffered from the mortgage melt down or the sub-prime re-fy seduction many fell into a hole for...

Those ugly-ass thangs were built in the mid 90's and sold at un-Detroit-like prices then. Many did not survive the foreclosure crisis, including one owned by councilman Pugh. Don't know their current status, but seeing how Midtown south to downtown is at 98% - plus capacity, I imagine they're lived in now, and some for a bargain.

[Zacha341]

Midtown will be a better success due to it's proximity to downtown and WSU as an anchor [[which incorporates WSU policing). A few houses developed in a 'bad area' is not going to work always. Midtown has a bit more density of new development.

On the other hand new housing development at say Joy Road and Grand River was never gonna make it. Soon as people moved in their were robbed, or broken into with great frequency. The peculiarity [[sic) of that kind of 'ISLAND' development only served as a theft magnet in such a depressed area!! Very little policing in that zip code as well...

You have to go back in time to the housing boom. There was a frenzied land grab which caused a lot of these developments in "strange" locations. Develpers were counting on people needing housing, buying and moving into these places. Then more of the surrrounding property would be developed. As the market bottomed out, then went stagnant, no one bought these houses, and the scrappers helped themselves. Now there's another frenzy in Midtown. I hope it lasts.

[Strong]

How did that huge new set of houses off East Jefferson just East of Belle Isle, do, I know of some people who live there and those homes look to be pretty sturdy and a solid neighborhood.

[Strong]

And, eventhough I am going back a number of years the Grayhaven project and those houses just behind Golightly school look good.