Housing...

[pyat]

Attention, Slans!

Detroit has the affordable housing you need to start a Slan Commune, independent nation, religious compound, or slum!


$10 will buy you a cute bungalow..


$200 gets you this handsome 1650 square foot brick home with recent carpet and paint!

At the time I am posting this, there are 944 houses in Detroit for sale costing less than $5000. A significant number of those are under $1000.

Comments

[zenten.livejournal.com]

$1000 BONUS TO SELLING AGENT IF SOLD BY 2/28/08.

Maybe he should have upped the bonus?

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Actually, it wasn't listed until this year.

Clearly the seller wanted time travellers to sell his home.

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

Their value depends a lot on whether you can get a job. Also, Detroit was a Philadelphia style nest of corruption and governmental disorganization even during the boom years of the 1990s. That said, if you are looking to start up some new and brilliant idea, Detroit could be the place. There's some good universities in the area, one top ranked even, a slew of good trade schools and community colleges. Plus, there's a good number of skilled workers in the greater region would be really excited to get in on the ground floor of just about anything. Also, last rumblings I've heard from friends in the area, kind of indicate that there's some kind of organized political movement to clean up Detroit and get it working again. I don't think Detroit will ever go back to what it was, but there's a chance to make it over in to just about any image the newcomers want.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I don't think Detroit will ever go back to what it was, but there's a chance to make it over in to just about any image the newcomers want.

Heck, if you want to start a death cult, a few square blocks would be cheaper than Jonestown! And with utilities!

[kianir.livejournal.com]

Fabulous prices all.

Unfortunately, they're cheap for good reasons:
- No jobs
- No schools
- Fascinating neighbors
- Fascinating people living and working in nearby abandoned structures
- Still paying property tax on what the city thinks it's worth
- Still have to insure the place, and your vehicle, both of which have obscenely high premiums in the city.

I do have dreams about winning the lottery and scooping up huge square blocks of Detroit prairie (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=42.376673,-82.944331&spn=0.001831,0.004828&t=h&z=18), though, and making a little homestead.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Google Street View doesn't go there. But you can set down on a neighbourhing street and watch the sun set over the empty lots. :)

[zenten.livejournal.com]

So what kinds of costs would buying one of those $10 houses accrue per year? I mean, there's got to be a catch.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

See kianir's comment. There's the social cost of living in a horribly crime ridden and depressed area, and the fact you're paying property taxes on a totally different value...

[zenten.livejournal.com]

and the fact you're paying property taxes on a totally different value...

Well there's the issue. I wasn't thinking of actually *living* there. I was more like "hey, I've got $10, why don't I buy I house?"

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Take two! They're small! :)

[thebitterguy]

Excellent. I can finally put my plans for Delta City into action!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Whazzat?

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

.... a city of Delta grads?

[hannahmorgan.livejournal.com]

Then I'll set up Churchill City, and we can have rumbles! Or Dance Fights! "I want to be in a-Hamilton, nothing to see in a-Hamilton..."

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Our mothers all are junkies

Our fathers all are drunks

Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

[mwbard.livejournal.com]

Think "Robocop" Pyat...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

You mean, as in, "I'll buy THAT for a dollar!"

[thebitterguy]

That is, in fact, exactly what I was referring to. The OCP plan to revitalize old Detroit, not Benny Hill on methamphetamines.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

I'm just startled that suddenly that catchphrase makes sense even in the context of Robocop.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

You've just lost all your Robocop credibility...

::B::

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. :( I'll have to turn in my card.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

No, your Robocard!

::B::

[thebitterguy]

You mean he's lost his RoboCred?

[bandersnitch.livejournal.com]

That's ok, they'll fix you. They fix everything.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Yep. His RoboCred is RoboDead!

::B::

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your cooperation. Good night.

[catarzyna.livejournal.com]

You could buy up a row of houses and become a slum lord. :-D

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Only if I get to wear a cape and a battered brass crown.

[catarzyna.livejournal.com]

Certainly!

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

::shrugs:: Having lived in such a place for seven years, you know, you'd be surprised at how well you can adapt. It's kinda funny reading some of the comments here. But, if you're down and out, it's a roof over your head -- laugh about it, sure. But someday, you (general) may be there. And you'll live.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I'm bemused at the absurdity of a market where a house can be had for $10. The copper in the wires is worth more. The bricks are worth more. The fixtures... etc., etc. They appear to be very nice houses, though I suppose they might be in bad shape inside. Even if they are, it's like seeing someone sell a gold ring for a penny. The intrinsic value of the house is substantially more.

In a larger sense, you could find a neighbourhood in, say, Winnipeg, or Saskatoon, with similar socioeconomic indicators and crime levels (with even with higher crime rates in some places), and even a burned out wreck or a vacant lot would sell for $30K. About ten houses down from me is a little bungalow in much rougher shape than the one in the first pic. Two years ago, there was a double murder/suicide there, and the inhabitants were drug dealers.

A few months after the murders, it was on the market for $70K, and it got snapped up. Go figure.

Addressing your comment a bit more directly! Certainly, one does adapt. There is no where in North America that is totally untenable, nowhere unlivable. There is nowhere I can think of that I would not live, if I had to make a living there.

That said, there are currently 50,000 empty or abandoned homes in Detroit. Thousands have already been bulldozed and turned into vacant lots, and as we see, hundreds more are being sold for desperately low prices. Presumably, the residents got sick of the status quo, or found their situation untenable for some other reason.

[slwatson.livejournal.com]

Housing down here tends to follow vastly different trends. My house in Youngstown, which I still own, was $2400.00 and kept the rain off for seven years. The same house, if you moved it about five miles to the West would be worth 30K or so. But crime tends to keep people out of the city.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

You can probably get some sort of job easier in those other places, even if it would be a really crappy job.

[kianir.livejournal.com]

It's worth reiterating and interjecting Detroit's unemployment rate (in January, and things have not improved with the continued auto uncertainty) was 22.2%. A lot of houses in Detroit are simply abandoned -- the owners picked up and left town without bothering to sell the place, either because they owed too much, it was worthless, or what have you.

And, bit by bit, the scrappers are bringing the intrinsic value of these vacant structures down to their market value. Right along with the occupied ones. Just a couple weeks ago a coworker of mine who lives in the city (five, six miles from her) had the telephone line to his house scrapped. He has also lost numerous high-value car parts off his cars, like the catalytic converter and wheels, over the last couple years. It's really depressing to watch his neighborhood slide; they're huge, beautiful houses and big yards flush with trees.

[kianir.livejournal.com]

.. miles from *here*.

[saomigray.livejournal.com]

I noticed a good many are bank-owned and fire damaged. I had a boss one time who had lived somewhere in Detroit. The day she stepped over a dead prostitute on her doorstep was the day she decided to get her kids out of there.

I think she did something like borrow more than the house was worth and then default or something along those lines.

Ordinarily, I would say that was a dishonest and morally bankrupt thing to do. In her case, I didn't see any other way to get her kids out of the situation.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

*nods* That $200 house has been for sale for a couple of years. In her situation, I would be seriously tempted to just bolt the door and drive far away...

[saomigray.livejournal.com]

From Detroit to Alabama is pretty far. :D

It's tough to know what you'd do until you're up against a hopeless situation like this.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Slums are Slans?

::B::

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Fen are Slem!

[hannahmorgan.livejournal.com]

And soylent green is people!

[anidada.livejournal.com]

1. If you'd left off the text, I would've thought those houses were in Hamilton or parts of Toronto. Similar eras, I suppose.

2. A tear-down in Toronto is still -- at a minimum -- about $200,000. But then, that's because most of Canada's population is crammed into a fairly small amount of space; you pay for the land, not the house. You could say the same about buying houses in Britain, probably.

3. I have zero interest in moving to the States, for a vast number of reasons. That said, I'm tempted to do a search of farm listings, just for the sake of comparison.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I think it's more a matter of local demand, on 2. They're bulldozing entire streets in Detroit, and selling lots for a $50, or less, and nothing is being built. Yet, outside of the city core, housing prices are fairly close to that of Toronto.

[vandringar.livejournal.com]

Yes, but.. Detroit. It's worth paying a lot of money to NOT live in Detroit. I spent years of my life trying to get away from that place!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Well, granted, I would not actually want to live there, no...

But maybe, if, like, you and a 100 friends bought a huge chunk of the city, you could reshape it in your own image!

[vandringar.livejournal.com]

That could possibly be good!

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

Haha... my girlfriend doesn't believe it. As in, I told her and she will not accept that it's not fake. : P

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Cruel, cynical girl! I like her already.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

My response was "It's Detroit!" but she didn't buy it : P