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?
the_s_guy

the_s_guy

December 19 2010, 09:47:34 UTC 10 years ago

It strikes me that if the $1 includes the land, it might be worth buying a lot of places, knocking them all down, and waiting for the land to become worth something again.

I guess it would depend on what the annual upkeep cost (taxes etc) for an empty block of land is.

Perhaps some negotiation on property rates could be made with the city, along the lines of "Let's say a company with no personal liability buys these properties for $1, refuses to pay taxes, and then dissolves before you can sue it. Sure, you can seize the property, but you can't sell it to anyone and you wouldn't be getting any kind of taxes at all on it until it eventually becomes sellable again - which could be decades. Alternatively, I could buy it and pay you $100 a year in taxes until the suburb gets back to 50% occupancy or I build on the lot, whichever comes first."