Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Feral Houses

See the feral houses of Detroit, Michigan.

I have been to inner-city Detroit.  The term "feral houses" is no joke.  Parts of the land have gone wild and turned to urban jungle that isn't really safe for humans to venture into.  There are shadows moving against the light.  There are things creeping around.  That city has seen waves of immigrants from many countries, and oh yes, everybody's things-that-go-bump-in-the-night have come along for the ride.  And then stuck around and got real friendly with each other in the back alleys over the years.  So when you take what used to be a thriving city and suck most of the people out of it, then leave empty houses and cars and factories and what-all else just lying around ... yeah, things get WEIRD.
Tags: photography
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  • 26 comments
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ford_prefect42

ford_prefect42

December 19 2010, 07:52:53 UTC 10 years ago

Many of those homes can be purchased for $1. There simply is no person currently interested in maintaining them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/02/detroit-homes-mortgage-foreclosures-80

"value" is dependent on "to whom and for what purpose", not on any third party opinion. If there are properties for sale for $1 that go to seed due to lack of buyers, then those properties are worthless. Regardless of the replacement cost.

A city with no export industries (industries that involve outside money flowing in) have property values that approach zero eventually. It isn't greed or insanity, just life.

Case in point, why don't *you* go buy a $1 home?
rhodielady_47

rhodielady_47

December 19 2010, 09:40:29 UTC 10 years ago

Ford, sometimes property goes unsold not because it is worthless but because the property is located in such a dangerous part of town that nobody wants to risk their safety working on the house much less live there afterwards.

Many large scale property developers will wait until they can buy several whole city blocks of real estate at a time, then tear it all down and rebuild it as one solid unified neighborhood of apartment buildings, shopping, office buildings, etc.
It may sound drastic but sometimes this is what it takes to turn a blighted area around.
:[
ford_prefect42

ford_prefect42

December 19 2010, 19:21:14 UTC 10 years ago

Location is a major component of value. If a property is located on the moon, or in a war zone then "worthless" is an appropriate descriptor.

Buying blocks and doing "urban renewal" is a good option on those, but it does require a housing marketplace in which new homes are worth more than the cost of construction (and demolition, etcetera). That doesn't seem to be the case in Detroit.