Detroit Housing Auction Fails To Move Properties

Yahoo! News:

On the auction block in Detroit: almost 9,000 homes and lots in various states of abandonment and decay from the tidy owner-occupied to the burned-out shell claimed by squatters.

Taken together, the properties seized by tax collectors for arrears and put up for sale last week represented an area the size of New York's Central Park. Total vacant land in Detroit now occupies an area almost the size of Boston, according to a Detroit Free Press estimate.

Read the whole story: Yahoo! News

Comments

[Rosewren]

A lot of those properties were probably owned by investors for rental property but the City of Detroit does not take property vandalism and theft seriously so if you own an unoccupied house and fix it so it can pass an inspection to be rented it will be dismantled inside and out by construction thieves and you will never get an officer to come out and take a report or do anything about it. Not occupied means very little insurance other than catastrophic like burned down, with huge deductibles. I saw one old man standing by a house he owned crying because it had been completely stripped and he had owned it only a week. Until Detroit does something about these property crimes no one will seriously invest in the city.

[RTIII]

Right.

You'd think a patrol car passing periodically could stop this practice or at least slow it down. A few high-profile busts and long sentences and you might see it end.
.

[RTIII]

I wonder how many forclosed squaters had the foresight to buy back their old homes for cheap?

If I was in the predicament of having lost a home that was being auctioned, I'd have tried to get it back for a song...
.

[skunky93]

The banks are eating the people alive. They are like faceless, automatic robots working to take full control. Perhaps the war against the machines has already started? Like in Terminator...except that it's the banks.

[commonsense68130]

Obviously, Detroit's collapse is the banks fault.

Detroit's had no issues for the last 30 years. http://bit.ly/1Uv3vY

[SuPaMan]

I agree with you Commonsense68130, this problem in Detroit is not the banks fault. People are buying homes here that they can't afford. As a Detroit resident I know that a lot of folks here have a job and sell drugs on the side to make up the dif. When one of those "careers" collapse or when the crack and pot selling business fades, so goes the income, so goes the pretty little house. One fifth of my "fine" city has always been vacant for as long as I can remember. This is nothing new for Detroit.

[bzb]

OldBro70 says:

I have also been to Detroit several times, and have made this observation and conclusion that if the only City in America that offered free housing was Detroit Mich.

I still would not move there although the upper peninsula of Michigan is beautiful.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.
__________­__________­__________­_____

You are entitled to your opinion but I Love Detroit just as much as I love New Orleans. I've been to the UP and worked on Mackinaw Island yes it is beautiful up there but I gotta admit there are a lot of poor people up there. Detroit made the top ten green cities of the US. I visit Detroit every year and I just have a great time.

One man can turn trash into a goldmine.

[PrairieView]

Is it green because of the weeds growing in vacant lots?

[socialtalker]

actually YES!
living here, its better to see the weeds than the burned out houses. the burnt out houses are depressing. the empty fields represent potential.
the empty fields do get cut once a summer in my neighborhood.
I think we could actually build a workable biofuel industry in this town. People like to dump tires in detroit, no reason why we could build structures with them.
the real problem is people are too passive and their way of thinking is way too conventional
they are waiting to be employed, waiting for someone to save them, waiting for jesus, they are trying to play it safe and they are losing everything.

[bzb]

I have been to Detroit many times and have always had a great time. It's sad to see the city of Detroit which has some great art deco buildings in the country. I love Detroit.

[OldBro70]

I have also been to Detroit several times, and have made this observation and conclusion that if the only City in America that offered free housing was Detroit Mich.

I still would not move there although the upper peninsula of Michigan is beautiful.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

[harriettubman]

In this bad economy who wants to move to a known crime infested, no job area and rehab a house? Please tell me.

[RJII]

someone jobless, sick, homeless, who lost their savings and is very desperate for shelter-- assuming they still have $500 to place a bid. They'll just have to beg for food and heat. This is such a sad reality for this once great nation.

[Tom95134]

Detroit today...

>>> http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1864272_1810098,00.html

>>> http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089_1850973,00.html

[Pavane]

Just so you know, your links do not work.

[commonsense68130]

use bit.ly

[LynnW49]

Okay, so where are the charitable rich? Why wasn't somebody for whom the auction bids are chump change buying up batches of houses and giving them back to their owners? Silly question, right? If ai had a few million. . .

[Tom95134]

Didn't you read the article? They (banks and speculators) were there buying up anything that was half-way decent and outbidding people who were trying to buy a place to live in.

[BevDiane]

This is the part that was so disgusting to me!

[LynnW49]

I read it. There are rich and there are rich. Not all of them are crooks or the ones who victimized these people. I just wonder where the decent ones are. It was infuriating to read about the soldier who got outbid by a speculator on the home he needed for his family. There's a guy who needed some unnatural disaster help, Detroit being one of those places hit by the Katrina of the recession. Where is FEMA with housing for this guy, or where is the military whom he serves?

[RJII]

it probably wouldn't be as lucrative of a tax write off as donating directly to the RNC.

[verycold]

If Obama would simplify the tax laws we could cut out the IRS that apparently refuses to listen to sound advice from the treasury to stop fraud, and all the tax loop holes for the rich would instantly go away. So many, including some that work closely with the president, would not be buying public housing to get their tax credits and then dumping the housing when that gravy train dried up.

It is our tax code that is corrupt and needs to be reformed more than any other issue. It is at the heart of this crisis. People do stupid things to get tax relief.

[Sinick]

If these aren't toxic assets I don't know what is. Hey President Obama, show me the TARP money!

[commonsense68130]

If only Obama would have been President when Bodie went belly up... if only...

[unite4change]

It sounds like you believe the jobs problem happened overnight. America started outsourcing jobs decades ago, and yet, I continue to hear Americans say, "they want the jobs to come back to America". Hell taxpayer money helped ship these companies overseas. It's called unfettered capitalism.

Jobs will never come back to America because most American companies are brands now. They move aboard, contract with foreign companies in third world country to produce the things Americans once produced. They have no overhead, employees, machinery, benefits, etc. to pay. However, what they do have is the brand name most American know.

A perfect example would be Nike, they don't manufactured athletic shoe or apparel they contract with a company that makes shoes for $20 a pair and they sell the same shoe for $100 or more. Everything they product is manufactured by someone other than Nike. Now you do the math, would you comeback to America when there are poor countries all over the world wanting to do this type of business.

[harriettubman]

Isn't it sickening? They move to other countries but ship their wares back here for us to buy. SMDH...There should be some type of tarriff on that.

[RJII]

we are (were) a f00lish nation with too many complacent folks who let it all get pi.ssed away.

[OldBro70]

Especially aided and abetted by the Compassionate Conservative and his supply side, trickle down, tax cuts to the Rich/Repub­lithugacan­s.

[commonsense68130]

Are you joking or are you really that dim?

Detroit has been ran by liberal dems since 1962. http://bit.ly/44U5rN

Yes, that's 47 years of unions, high taxes and denial. http://bit.ly/1Uv3vY

[themodernleader]

Cities disappear as manufacturing and jobs disappear. If we don't begin a rational strategy for creating value-oriented occupations and jobs, our entire country will not disappear. The people will revolt and establish a new leadership system that provides reasons for living.
Never in American history has there been less loyal leadership, more corrupt, selfish and greedy decision makers than the present moment.
While our jobs and economy crash we are fighting over health coverage for every American that costs another 100 billion extra Federal revenue per year without a source of that revenue. There is not a discouraging word mentioned about taxing insider speculation and unwonted wealth even as our eonomic system crashes.
Our first priority was to put idled Americans back to work in the millions. We are experiencing a massive failure of elected leadership.

[RTIII]

"While our jobs and economy crash we are fighting over health coverage for every American that costs another 100 billion extra Federal revenue per year without a source of that revenue."

Oops!

The source of revenue is the collective premium already paid.

_Eventually_ This reform will way more than pay for itself - presuming, of course, that the populists win the day when the dust settles.
.

[RJII]

sad, but this recession/­depression is an opportunity for health care reform to finally get passed. If things were still gravy, nobody, esp Congress, would be interested.

[commonsense68130]

Just like Social Security and Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

It'll be fine, at least for us...

[verycold]

I think Christina Romer has made it perfectly clear that after this year you have seen all the jobs that most likely will be created from this so-called stimulus plan. She said it not I. So it seems the stimulus was never intended to create jobs but to plug the holes for social programs at the state level. Remember all the mayors making their wish list. Well many got their wish sans jobs.

[nopilikia]

Thank you Congress. Thank you Wall St.

[brady61995]

detroit was not nice when it was nice. this is no shocker.

[drymartini1]

exactly...do people really live in detroit ?

[brady61995]

i was just there. the suburbs are still around barely, the city is brutal, they need to send the 690.000 clunkers back there and just use the city as a landfill. there are some good people holding out because its home.but it was very depressing to be there.

[socialtalker]

he!! yeah, they live in detroit, I LIVE IN DETROIT! in of the worst neighborhood too! its become country. i now have rabbits in the yard, there are pheasants. on the far east side a fox or to have been seen.
it's the almost nightly fires thats the worst of it. its tragic to see so many great houses gutted out.
but people jerk themselves off making silly comments like yours over how horrible it is.
yeah, its bad right now, but its not post apocalyptic like time mag idi0t said
we still get trash picked up, roads cleared, cleaned in the summer, etc. there are still stores nearby to shop etc.
in fact i thing those stories also post because certain buyer are trying to scare people away and get land cheap. this city is hidden gold.
if i had a lot of money i would buy a BIG chunk of detroit. this is prime land, fresh water, 650 feet above sea level. canadian border. we are not a deep sea port, but still exporting could be a prime business here.

[socialtalker]

i cant believe belive they didnt post that long note i wrote. they let all the negative stuff post and squelch my post about the city.

[LynnW49]

Some folks called it home.

[brady61995]

i just had to go and close something where people had worked for over 15 years some of them. i have closed several of these around the country in the last year. same story 12 15 yr employees struggling to survive in these hollowed out cities. very sad

[investingonline]

where are the unemployment benefits we need?

he right: http://finnanceopinionss.blogspot.com

[robinhood1]

How about a little nation building in Detroit instead of in Iraq and Afghanistan?

[ForVivi]

That would have been the American thing to do.

[PrairieView]

That would have been the unAmerican thing to do.

[LynnW49]

Yes!

[Pavane]

Yes! Exactly!

[OldBro70]

Although I was never a fan of Detroit and have traveled there to attend conferences on several occasions. It is inexcusable that past administrations would have allowed the decay and despair to cause an American city to become so desolate and yet spend billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq.

Country first? American cities first?

What a crock.