If you are thinking of buying a home, I would look into the North End neighborhood, which is everything north of Grand Blvd. and between 75 and Woodward, going all the way up to the Highland Park border.

You can get a magnificent house in this area for under 10k, and often well under 10k. It will need some work, but for the most part all the basics will be in place.

It seems like they're trying to promote most of this area as part of Midtown. The neighborhoods north of Grand Boulevard are the southernmost primarily residential neighborhoods along the Woodward corridor. And once the light rail goes down this area is going to come back in a big way.

I know a guy who bought a house in the North End last year and he's doing fine. There's some blight, but the crime isn't serious. There are a ton of new houses being built in the neighborhood, don't know who's building them.