Peace and Quiet in Detroit [[the negative turns positive)

[mpow]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...oreclosures-80

[Retroit]

And the "positive" is.......?

[Michigan]

And the "positive" is.......?

People from Cali and jolly old England are calling about buying properties. A person just moved in from Chicago. That is the positive. Properties are going to begin selling, and the city will thrive. This will in turn draw more people and spill over into the burbs.

[Gsgeorge]

This is a minority market. For every $1-$1000 house that is bought, probably ten are abandoned. Not to mention, who is buying these houses and actually living in them? I have a feeling the people from California & England might be buying these homes in the hope of selling them later when property values rise, or holding on to the property long-term.

[kryptonite]

It sounds like fairly good news, but those of us who have owned homes are familiar with the fear of new renters moving in next door. I wouldn't say that out of town buyers snatching up cheap homes for rental properties is any major improvement. But it does avoid abandonment.

But people moving to Detroit to take advantage of cheap housing deals, that would be a positive development. I wish them the best also, lving in Detroit can be extremely difficult. Like hundreds of thousands of other former Detroit residents I left after too many incidents with crime, etc. And I have a lot of city smarts, what about people coming here from far away?

[softailrider]

This is a minority market. For every $1-$1000 house that is bought, probably ten are abandoned. Not to mention, who is buying these houses and actually living in them? I have a feeling the people from California & England might be buying these homes in the hope of selling them later when property values rise, or holding on to the property long-term.

Long term? The house will be carted off piece by piece by then.

[kryptonite]

Houses for $1 in Detroit are nothing new. Didn't HUD begin selling houses for a buck back in the 1970's to people that would supposedly fix them up but rarely did? That was another brilliant move that did Detroit more harm than good.

During the late 90's and the early 2000's real estate value in Detroit improved greatly due to the national real estate boom. Now the super bargains are readily available again.

But at least the news article was not a typical "report on the abondonement and crime of Detroit" report.

[East Detroit]

Good thing the property values in the suburbs are stable, otherwise carpetbaggers and opportunists with no cares about Metro Detroit would swoop in there, too.

[canuck]

One of the really painful things about this is that Detroit has an abundance of great architecture. Both residential and commercial buildings of interest are being demolished and yet new construction / cookiecutter type goes on in the city limits. There should be a regional or state plan to stop the nonsense. Rehabilitating neighborhoods with an increase in policing is more positive than filling holes in with new stuff. Community projects like Habitat where residents contribute to their home renovation are a better solution. Quitting on a city the size of Detroit is going to be incredibly costly in human and monetary terms for the US. I cant believe that this is left to happen. There are plenty of people out there ready to stay on and they should be helped in spite of the economy. Probably because of it too. Maybe Detroiters feel that houses are like cars, they are disposable like the rest of the junk were used to, but I dont get that from the forums. Detroit would be too big a ghost town for the suburbs to remain unscathed by the way...

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Suburban values are declining as well. It might not be as bad as Detroit, but they are getting pinched too. It's not just about Detroit, it's about ALL of Southeastern Michigan.