What $1 buys in: Detroit

Zillow's Diane Tuman chased down this photo, and several others, from the Detroit News, and they're worth a look. This is the house that sold recently for $1. That's not a typo, it sold for a dollar.

I'll reprint what Detroit News reporter Ron French told Diane about the looting of vacant houses in Detroit: “As soon as they know it’s empty, it’s like a gazelle limping in the Serengeti — they will take it down. You will see people pushing a wheelbarrow down the street, full of siding or copper. They take everything.”

-- Peter Viles
Photo credit: Bearing Group Real Estate via The Detroit News

Comments

[Bryan Morris]

Definitely a fixer.

[CD]

I see great potential. A little TLC, here in LA that was 500K
2 years ago.

[It All Happens on the Margin]

Those TV antennas apparently aren't worth, well, a dollar anymore...

[Bobsuruncle]

Looks like they overpaid

[Takefive]

"They take everything.”

I think they are performing a useful and needed function. Much like the carrion eaters that clean up roadkill or bacteria that return what remains back into soil, these are nature’s housekeepers, albeit for a different ecology.

Likely we will see a concomitant increase in the infamous Detroit Halloween fires this year.

[sandiegan]

So Detroit has become the ultimate "strawman" in the RE bull/bear rhetoric wars.

The structure is worthless.
Only the land it sits on has any value.
Buying that property is buying expenses & liability.
How much would you pay for a non-running Yugo with for flat tires?

The buyer is buying a vacant lot with $5,000-$20,000 in costs for demolition and land prep.

The government is just offering an incentive to get ugly, dangerous properties off the market.

That's all.

[Lou]

I bet a mortgage broker got a $0.02 commision on that one,

[Laker]

Lou,
You killed me with that...
That Realtard is so happy today, i think he actually scored $0.03 here...back in Detroit they are still splitting 6%

CD,
This house in LA in 2006 would fetch $1.2 Million dollars.
Heck, today this place in santa Monica or san marino will sell for $800,000.
In LA, incomes are 100 times that in Detroit, so there is no problem to pay...
Also mortgage rates in LA are 100 times less than in Detroit...
What no? Are incomes in Detroit and LA just $5000-10000 aprat on annual basis?
Are mortgages pretty much the same???
oohh, sorry, in LA with pay the so cal premium...that's it!

[NevadaGal]

The proud new owner should just donate to the fire department as a "burner" (allow to FD to set fire to it to practice putting it out...after it completely burns to the ground).

They could take a $2 tax deduction on it.