Detroit debuts the new house auction site.

[animatedmartian]

The homes near Marygrove are up for auction as well as the rehab grants provided by Talmer Bank. Grants are 20% forgiven for each year the buyer lives in the home for up to five years and of course the grants can't be used to buy homes, only rehab ones already bought.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...bank-authority

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

The homes near Marygrove are up for auction as well as the rehab grants provided by Talmer Bank. Grants are 20% forgiven for each year the buyer lives in the home for up to five years and of course the grants can't be used to buy homes, only rehab ones already bought.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...bank-authority

I really like the city's new approach. A lot of interesting info in this recent article in the Freep:

http://www.freep.com/article/2014071...homes-nuisance

Some of the points:

-The city originally targeted 79 homes in the Marygrove area; that increased to 90 after getting title to some from the county.
-Of the 90, consent agreements have been signed by 35 owners to get the house repaired and occupied.
-The city has gained title to 22 houses after taking the owners to court, and is in the legal process on others.
-Unfortunately, 20 are slated for demo, but I'm sure that would be higher the longer any of the others sat empty. Paging Nicole Curtis: I'm sure she could save some of those 20.....

I really like this approach of targeting a significant number of homes within a relatively small area. Ninety homes within a 16 block area can have noticeable results, and hopefully seeing homes being fixed up and occupied instead of abandoned and stripped will give other residents reason to make improvements. Its an area of nice homes, but like so many its pockmarked by blighted and vacant homes. It would be fantastic for the mind set on some of these areas to change to one of "its hit bottom and is on the rebound."

So many houses with interesting roof lines and brick work, such as this one on Cherrylawn:



As they say, "they don't make 'em like this anymore."