There’s still close to 80,000 blighted homes that need to be demolished in Detroit. The cost to do this is somewhere around $1 billion dollars and Detroit doesn’t have it the city went bankrupt. The only reason local government managed to pay for the existing demolitions is because they were given 50 million dollars by the federal government when Obama was president. But more houses are becoming empty and abandoned because the city of Detroit is scamming its local residents. The houses that are abandoned but not exactly considered blight is sold to low income or first time home buyers but instead of reassessing the property values they keep the property appraisals high so that the city can collect higher property taxes. Many of these first time or low income home buyers get a sticker shock when they see their property tax bill and cannot afford to pay and thus get evicted and the property either gets sold to a 1. real estate investor who’s looking to flip the property or 2. Another low income first time home buyer who buys the house for $5,000 but gets a $12,000 property tax bill. And I know what most people say $5,000 for a house!!!! But remember those houses are really worth $0. Will never appreciate, located in a bad neighborhood, and will require tens of thousands of dollars of rehab costs.
I live here in Arizona and inflation is eating up this area - soon with inflation people will come out of this west coast area .And further west - forget it . Average rent is $5,400.00 a month . Those costs are shifting this way .Soon people will be refilling that area it is not a matter of if but a matter of when .
Plant trees. Anyone, living in Detroit, want to see improvements? Plant 1 tree each year. Take care of it. The research on how trees improve urban life is stunning; but it takes time ... maybe 30 years. However if we never plant the tree in the first place, nothing happens. You feel you're one person and can do nothing that matters? Retired Librarian, Michigan
@sosaboy sosa. Detroit will be that city that rises from the ashes like the Phoenix. Just wait and see. And I'm not even from Detroit, but I have been following the plight of Detroit for the last two years and have been heartened to see how strides are being made to rally back from financial, economic and fiscal ruin. As long as there remain people who remember the jewel that Detroit once was and CARE to see that again, there WILL be progress.
Lots of nice looking homes, sad they don’t just rehab some of them so the area is not such a deserted place. The land should be taken from the city and turned into rural land .. reclaimed by the state.
Yes this is a problem. But using tax payer money to clear land for high end development is wrong. Now if the mayor would sign a law making it only legal to put affordable housing. See how fast this program stops. My question how much money does the mayor ang governor gets from high end developers? The news should investigate the money trail.
