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Why I bought a house in Detroit for $500. Fascinating read. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Wilfredo Ledezma
- Start date
Wilfredo Ledezma
Footballguy
worth checking out even just for the photos. But what a great story. Takes some balls that's for sure.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Hate to say it but I'd rather have the 5 c-notes.
G
Guest
Guest
New frontier.
Ray Barboni
Footballguy
Thanks for the post, enjoyed the read. Great story. This is the type of news that more Detroiters need to see, it truly is a great city that needs help from within. Short-sighted ##### bags will bag on Detroit sure, but that city helped build this country...
Mario Kart
Footballguy
PM Em.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
It is a wild place. It is arguably both the greatest and worst city in the history of this country. You can't discount it's contributions from the cars to the weapons. What has become of it, that's everything that is wrong about this country.
Premier
Footballguy
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
My Great Uncle still lives in Poletown, he is now in an elderly home a few blocks from where he lived for 60 years. My family wanted to move him out of there when I was a kid and he refused. He's refused to move anywhere thousands of times, because he grew up in Detroit, had a family, worked there and was determined to die there.
That neighborhood was still viable then, we went quite often to see my Great Uncle and my aunt and uncle who lived there also. St Stanislaus was where my Mother was Christened, it is the neighborhood my Grandpa lived in when he first came from Lithuania in 1914. When Coleman Young leveled most of the old neighborhood to build yet another auto plant, it was particularly traumatic to the city in a time of decline because this was one of the few ethnic enclaves in the city. My contention is that part of Detroit's mass white flight had a lot to do with the city not having a lot of ethnic enclaves like Chicago, New York or Philadelphia among others. Ethnic enclaves hold during times of despair, but the mayor leveled the neighborhood because he was trying to make a point about the menacing nature of man.
I grew up on the Westside, it was not anything like the Eastside even then. Those neighborhoods along Gratiot were ####ty in the 1970s, we didn't even have a break in in the neighborhood until the crack epidemic in the mid 80s where I lived. My thought has always been Detroit hit bottom in the late 1980s, that's when it became a place to leave. All the abandonment, $500 houses, and chaotic conditions came after those days and the city was never going to be the same. So each time I've gone back since I left for the Air Force long ago, the precipitous fall has not really surprised me as much as one would think. I think the street lights not working and my old neighborhood being dark was the strangest thing, everything else just came as expected over time.
Downtown, midtown and center city are better now than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Once the department stores left in the 80s downtown was terrible, now it's just like any other U.S. downtown. More people are moving in, the downtown area is getting safer block by block as you move out (well not east yet, but that is coming) and a real artisan presence is felt there now. Last year I was near midtown (north of downtown) and noticed there were a lot more hippies than there were street urchins, a lot more boutique studios than liquor stores.
There are areas beyond downtown that are viable, most of them are on the westside of the city. Mexicantown is actually gaining population, the only other neighborhood adding population beyond the downtown and midtown areas. There are great homes in Rosedale park, North Rosedale, Bagley, Indian Villiage, and Boston Edison. Corktown, Franklin Park, University District (UoD), and Springwells all have areas that are decent. The rest of the city needs to draw down and Detroit has to throw all their resources at the viable neighborhoods that will be a part of the future of the city. They should start by doing what Syria did in Hama, get some bulldozers and level everything near City Airport and in other locations of my choosing.
The city proper is about right at 750k, and over time I think the city will come down to about 600k, then come back up to 750k. There are a lot of people in the city that need to go, maybe about 200k of what lives there now. Detroit is so tough that there is very little gang presence, Bloods and Crips got run out because street justice moves block to block. I mean people are so desperate now they elected a white mayor, something that has never happened in my lifetime and frankly something I thought I'd never see. But that says there is a population that wants to turn this around.
People also don't realize how great the metro area is. There are 4 million people and it's the 10th largest metro area in the country, it's not abandoned buildings and runaway crime in Novi and Farmington Hills. What's left of the auto industry, Quicken, Compuware and other corporations are staying and more companies will move in simply for the cheap rent. The way the downtown is, it's going to get better and better and the surrounding areas will also. Detroit is just the first city this is happening to, there will be many others and it's not just isolated to the rust belt.
The reasons for Detroit's fall are numerous, it's not just the auto industry which is a pretty big misconception. It's something to learn from and pay attention to so these kinds of stories help build the city's reputation for the possible. Belle Isle is going to the State, downtown is getting better and better and we have a honkey mayor. Things are only going to get better IMO.
That neighborhood was still viable then, we went quite often to see my Great Uncle and my aunt and uncle who lived there also. St Stanislaus was where my Mother was Christened, it is the neighborhood my Grandpa lived in when he first came from Lithuania in 1914. When Coleman Young leveled most of the old neighborhood to build yet another auto plant, it was particularly traumatic to the city in a time of decline because this was one of the few ethnic enclaves in the city. My contention is that part of Detroit's mass white flight had a lot to do with the city not having a lot of ethnic enclaves like Chicago, New York or Philadelphia among others. Ethnic enclaves hold during times of despair, but the mayor leveled the neighborhood because he was trying to make a point about the menacing nature of man.
I grew up on the Westside, it was not anything like the Eastside even then. Those neighborhoods along Gratiot were ####ty in the 1970s, we didn't even have a break in in the neighborhood until the crack epidemic in the mid 80s where I lived. My thought has always been Detroit hit bottom in the late 1980s, that's when it became a place to leave. All the abandonment, $500 houses, and chaotic conditions came after those days and the city was never going to be the same. So each time I've gone back since I left for the Air Force long ago, the precipitous fall has not really surprised me as much as one would think. I think the street lights not working and my old neighborhood being dark was the strangest thing, everything else just came as expected over time.
Downtown, midtown and center city are better now than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Once the department stores left in the 80s downtown was terrible, now it's just like any other U.S. downtown. More people are moving in, the downtown area is getting safer block by block as you move out (well not east yet, but that is coming) and a real artisan presence is felt there now. Last year I was near midtown (north of downtown) and noticed there were a lot more hippies than there were street urchins, a lot more boutique studios than liquor stores.
There are areas beyond downtown that are viable, most of them are on the westside of the city. Mexicantown is actually gaining population, the only other neighborhood adding population beyond the downtown and midtown areas. There are great homes in Rosedale park, North Rosedale, Bagley, Indian Villiage, and Boston Edison. Corktown, Franklin Park, University District (UoD), and Springwells all have areas that are decent. The rest of the city needs to draw down and Detroit has to throw all their resources at the viable neighborhoods that will be a part of the future of the city. They should start by doing what Syria did in Hama, get some bulldozers and level everything near City Airport and in other locations of my choosing.
The city proper is about right at 750k, and over time I think the city will come down to about 600k, then come back up to 750k. There are a lot of people in the city that need to go, maybe about 200k of what lives there now. Detroit is so tough that there is very little gang presence, Bloods and Crips got run out because street justice moves block to block. I mean people are so desperate now they elected a white mayor, something that has never happened in my lifetime and frankly something I thought I'd never see. But that says there is a population that wants to turn this around.
People also don't realize how great the metro area is. There are 4 million people and it's the 10th largest metro area in the country, it's not abandoned buildings and runaway crime in Novi and Farmington Hills. What's left of the auto industry, Quicken, Compuware and other corporations are staying and more companies will move in simply for the cheap rent. The way the downtown is, it's going to get better and better and the surrounding areas will also. Detroit is just the first city this is happening to, there will be many others and it's not just isolated to the rust belt.
The reasons for Detroit's fall are numerous, it's not just the auto industry which is a pretty big misconception. It's something to learn from and pay attention to so these kinds of stories help build the city's reputation for the possible. Belle Isle is going to the State, downtown is getting better and better and we have a honkey mayor. Things are only going to get better IMO.
Mr. Retukes
Footballguy
Honus
Footballguy
DD, that was a very insightful and thought-provoking response. I would love to have the opportunity to ask you a few follow-up questions, given some of the ideas and rattling around in my own head lately. About me: I have a Masters in geography, and was a cartographer at a Big Ten university until I was laid off last year. As much as I love maps, places, people, and the world around me in general, I never really took the time to develop any marketable skills. I am not handy at all.
Still, this story inspires me. I have always been fascinated with the rise and fall of Detroit, even though I've never been there. Now, I find myself at a crossroads in life. With no desire to get back into academia, I find that I'm back to square one. This idea of taking a year or two and living off of the resources I have accrued, while I stake my small claim somewhere new is enticing. I am naïve enough to think that I could potentially invest in a property and learn some of the basics about fixing it up over YouTube videos and Bob Vila books, while working with contractors on the more difficult projects.
There is a caveat, however. I do not see well at all. That is to say I cannot drive. I'm no stranger to walking and biking, though, I would just need to find a place that is somewhat accessible through public transportation. My question: as I have zero idea on where to begin looking, could you, or anyone else who reads this, suggest a few neighborhoods where I might begin my search? Ideally, I would like a spot near a public thoroughfare where buses might operate, in, what we geographers call the 'zone of accretion' (ie the sector toward which the city seems to be growing).
I am not looking to remodel a property just so I can flip it. Rather, I believe I would like to plant roots in a new place and do my part to help one of America's great cities get back on it's feet. Ultimately, I will need to relocate to somewhere. I hate the town where I live now, and I loathe the university and laid me off. It's now just a matter of trying to figure out what the next stage of my life will be.
Still, this story inspires me. I have always been fascinated with the rise and fall of Detroit, even though I've never been there. Now, I find myself at a crossroads in life. With no desire to get back into academia, I find that I'm back to square one. This idea of taking a year or two and living off of the resources I have accrued, while I stake my small claim somewhere new is enticing. I am naïve enough to think that I could potentially invest in a property and learn some of the basics about fixing it up over YouTube videos and Bob Vila books, while working with contractors on the more difficult projects.
There is a caveat, however. I do not see well at all. That is to say I cannot drive. I'm no stranger to walking and biking, though, I would just need to find a place that is somewhat accessible through public transportation. My question: as I have zero idea on where to begin looking, could you, or anyone else who reads this, suggest a few neighborhoods where I might begin my search? Ideally, I would like a spot near a public thoroughfare where buses might operate, in, what we geographers call the 'zone of accretion' (ie the sector toward which the city seems to be growing).
I am not looking to remodel a property just so I can flip it. Rather, I believe I would like to plant roots in a new place and do my part to help one of America's great cities get back on it's feet. Ultimately, I will need to relocate to somewhere. I hate the town where I live now, and I loathe the university and laid me off. It's now just a matter of trying to figure out what the next stage of my life will be.
flysack
Footballguy
The author mentions a program "giving" homes away to writers. Huffington ran a piece on it recently -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/19/write-a-house-detroit_n_4474976.html
My wife and I briefly considered looking into it. But, sad as this may be, we realized we wouldn't want to raise our son there, and her job (secondary ed) would likely be hellish. This would be challenging and inspiring to a kid in their mid-20s just out of grad school, but we're both just entering our 40s and are concerned with other things. She did her time working with rough kids in LA years ago.
Still, godspeed to these poor artists & writers revitalizing these lost neighborhoods into creative enclaves.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/19/write-a-house-detroit_n_4474976.html
My wife and I briefly considered looking into it. But, sad as this may be, we realized we wouldn't want to raise our son there, and her job (secondary ed) would likely be hellish. This would be challenging and inspiring to a kid in their mid-20s just out of grad school, but we're both just entering our 40s and are concerned with other things. She did her time working with rough kids in LA years ago.
Still, godspeed to these poor artists & writers revitalizing these lost neighborhoods into creative enclaves.
Baloney Sandwich
Footballguy
It is easy to make Detroit the butt of jokes but everyone should be hoping for a successful rebirth. There are cities all over the country that need to reinvent themselves and a successful Detroit would serve as a great example for others.
It's got to be a good retirement gamble. The FFA should pool enough money to buy a block for ####s and giggles.
Juxtatarot
Footballguy
How much are property taxes on these $500 homes?
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Henry Ford
Footballguy
Henry Ford
Footballguy
Or a few. If you can buy up two or three blocks in a neighborhood and fix them up, it changes the whole neighborhood.
Wilfredo Ledezma
Footballguy
There was an episode of American Pickers (season 3 episode 1 fwiw) that featured this guy who had overtime bought up like 50 properties including a former school for 10k (all connected by a mini train system) It was really cool. He was aquiring properties because he didn't want to see the neighborhood go to pot, often gifting them back to 'good families' If i was gonna relocate there I'd do it near him or one of his properties based on his ethos. Very cool episode btw too.
Meet Joel Landy | DomeMagazine.com
DETROIT – There’s an elegantly restored apartment building called the Addison on the edge of Detroit’s legendary Cass Corridor, an area that a few years ago belonged to hookers and winos.
The Addison, however, features urban living at its finest; on its ground floor is a classy restaurant, the Atlas Global Bistro, which often serves as a lunch and dinner spot for the city’s elite.
A few weeks ago, some of the diners’ eyes turned to an unkempt-looking man sitting at a nice table. He was a bit glassy-eyed, and needed a shave. His work shirt was wrinkled; his pants smudged, and his hands stained with nicotine and grease.
Some of the customers may have wondered what he was doing in there. A few may have wondered how he got in to the restaurant.
When I asked, he chuckled and said, “Well, I own the building. Actually, I own all these buildings, three square blocks,” he said. “Except the one my ex-wife lives in, but let’s not talk about that.”
Meet Joel Landy, 60-year-old eccentric developer, collector, and architect of possibly the most improbably successful urban renewal projects in the state, if not all of America. And he’s made it all happen himself, with a lot of sweat equity, a little mechanical knowledge, no vast inherited wealth and nary a government dime.
He’s fought off pimps and drug dealers and corrupt politicians; installed barbed wire and cameras where he had to; placed a new two-screen movie theater (Cass City Cinema) and a first-rate Montessori pre-school in the same restored school building.
What’s more, after years of false alarms, he really believes Detroit is coming back. “Thirty years ago, I had this dream,” of a restored vibrant city, Landy said. The son of Russian immigrants, he dropped out of high school as a teenager, moved to Chicago, and founded a shop printing counterculture posters.
Eventually, he wound up back in Detroit, where he gravitated to the corridor because of the freedom it offered; he once said “It’s a place where you can park a tractor on your front lawn if you want to. I certainly couldn’t do that in the suburbs.”
What Landy could do especially well was fix foreign cars. He established a business, started making money. Soon, he was able to buy a somewhat dilapidated 1882-era mansion in the corridor, with a garage big enough for his two classic Packard cars.
Total cost? $4,600. He scratched his head. “I would always say, where are the smart aware people? Can’t anyone see what is here?”
Others may have been very slow to come, but he kept building. With children fleeing the Detroit schools by the thousands, he bought one abandoned building for $1,000. “I found a miracle banker who loaned me $5 million for construction and let me be the general contractor.”
Before long, Landy was landlord to a thriving charter school operation that was paying him $65,000 a month.
He built studios for artists, for movie makers. Shortly before the Great Recession and the real estate slump, he was told that his collection on properties “mostly bought for less than $100,000 total” was worth $28 million. He wasn’t interested in selling.
“I decided to help everyone around me to develop everything around me, and in that way improve my quality of life for my neighbors and myself,” Landy said.
Not that he is starry-eyed about street people; he proudly boasts of having sent at least 17 to jail for trying to rip him off. Nor is he a conventional developer. What he is really at least as famous for is eccentric and eclectic collecting –model trains, engines, and a colony of cats; some house, some feral. (Last year, he was featured on the History Channel’s popular show, American Pickers.)
Not too many people are high on Detroit these days, as the city struggles to avoid bankruptcy with a set of leaders who often seem out of touch with economics and reality. Landy ignores them.
“I’m seeing Detroit’s rebirth, and this time it’s real,” he says. “Every day, 20 or 30 new people are moving here, looking for housing downtown.”
For the past year, his own units have all had NO VACANCY signs. “Every week, I hear of maybe 10 people inquiring about starting a new business downtown.”
They are smart to do so, he says. “The opportunities are great. We have some great historic stock waiting for creativity to lead it to re-use –you can find great assets here for pennies on the dollar.”
Look at empty schools, he advises; “if you convert them to housing you save hundreds of thousands on fire safety and building safety improvements you aren’t required to add.”
Things could be better still, if the banks did their part. “No bank in the country will put up money for these rental rehab projects in Detroit. They have been in no way encouraged to loan here,” he says…and shrugs. Detroit is coming back anyway, he said. “When I moved here in 1977, we used to play baseball in the street.
“Every couple of hours, we’d move for a car to pass. Now, I have been criticized for creating traffic jams,” he grinned.
“Bring on the criticism!”
Wilfredo Ledezma
Footballguy
another article on him. awesome dude.
Cass Ave.'s Joel Landy picked for "American Pickers" | Crain's Detroit Business
Cass Ave.'s Joel Landy picked for "American Pickers" | Crain's Detroit Business
Wilfredo Ledezma
Footballguy
10 man survivor league. Winner gets the neighborhood. lol
Think of how much money you could make growing herb legally as Mich has Medical MJ. Anyone up for an FFA-Hippie commune?
flapgreen
Footballguy
NutterButter
Footballguy
Great article. Thanks for sharing. Every once in awhile, the FFA delivers a gem.
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
I would probably look in the Wayne State/Midtown area and work my way out in concentric circles. 48201, 48202, and 48203 but I would not go north of the Davidson Freeway or east of Mt Elliot. New Center is the next area of revitalization, I think properties are more expensive there but I've looked to buy near there recently and there was stuff under $5k.
The guy in the article lives in 48207 across I-75 from the areas I mentioned. I'm not sure I would suggest this area, but you will find good pockets in there. Public transportation and safety too far from Woodward Avenue is spotty at best. Hamtramak is a city within Detroit which is pretty interesting. No $500 houses I wouldn't think, but it's probably the safest and most culturally diverse neighborhood in the city with lots of stores and long time residents. That is actually close to the search area I gave you, I'd recommend looking around at those properties to see what it returns. Only thing bad about Hamtramck is that it is the car theft capital of the United States, but you don't have to worry about that!!! Hamtown is awesome, living in or near there would be something I'd like in your situation. It's a ten minute bus ride from Ham Town to downtown also.
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Sarnoff
Footballguy
Seriously. Imagine if everyone in GMTAN got together and all bought up an entire subdivision to live in once they hit retirement age. Gate it up, set their own rules, live like pirates inside.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
If you are buying a $500 house in Detroit, every semi valuable piece of metal is already gone.
msommer
Footballguy
I foresee a neighborhood full of cats they can take pictures of and show each other...Seriously. Imagine if everyone in GMTAN got together and all bought up an entire subdivision to live in once they hit retirement age. Gate it up, set their own rules, live like pirates inside.
Honus
Footballguy
Excellent info, just the kind of insight I was after. Thanks for taking the time to be thorough. Now I'll go see what I can dig up. And yeah, being a legally blind cartographer has its challenges, but I've got a good sense for it. Plus, the client doesn't know that the guy making his map was sitting six inches from the computer screen when he was doing it.
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
When you start looking PM me with some stuff you are looking at, and I can probably tell you about the neighborhood and its advantages and disadvantages. I would generally stay north of downtown, and would definitely avoid stuff east of downtown.Honus said:
swirvenirvin
Footballguy
buddy bought a few of these when then do the auctions. He has made some money. I was about to jump in but then it became the it thing to do, and the really good values went away. When you are bidding you don't know exactly what you are bidding on so the $500- or $2500 is ok, but things started to get bid up and wasn't quit worth the risk
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
I wouldn't do an auction for this specific reason. The best properties are going to be bank-owned properties or family owned by abandoned properties that the just want to get something for. Most of them are going to even still have the pluming, but they won't be $500. You can get bank-owned stuff for $2-$3k though, and some of them are surprisingly in decent shape. IMO the real values in Detroit are houses in the $5-$10k range on the west side, there are some beautiful brick colonials and tudors that just need some TLC.
Honestly if you don't have kids and don't have to worry about schools, some of these neighborhoods are just fine. Lots of older folks and less crime than you think. An alarm, a dog, and a little work and you have a really nice place.
eaganwildcats
Footballguy
What would property taxes look like on a place like that?
