Motor City Hits Bottom, Disappears
Detroit family homes sell for just $10
"The once thriving industrial city has suffered a dramatic decline following the global economic crisis.
According to Tim Prophit, a real estate agent, the crisis has led to a unprecedented portfolio of homes, but they are failing to sell.
He said there were homes on the market for $100 (£61), but an offer of just $10 (£6) would be likely to be accepted.
Speaking on a BBC 2 documentary, Requiem for Detroit, to be screened on Saturday, Mr Prophit said: "The property is listed by the city of Detroit as being worth $35,000 (£22,000), but the bank know that is impossible to ask.
"This part of town has got a lot of bad press in the media because it featured in Eminem's film 'Eight Mile', but that particular road is fifteen minutes up the road and that is a long way in Detroit."
Homes offered in viewing brochures as early 1920s example of colonial architecture would once have made handsome homes but are no longer sought after.
Mr Prophit, of The Bearing Group, said: "This house was foreclosed by the bank a couple of months ago and was offered to us to sell.
"But we can only put the boards up on the windows to protect the property, we can't be here 24 hrs a day to stop the squatters and the crack addicts from moving in.
"Detroit is a city in decline. We are known as the Murder Capital of America, because of the number of deaths each year."
Mr Prophit said: "Since the subprime mortgage crisis and the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the banks have been foreclosing on properties at an increase of 15 per cent every nine months."
Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking
"Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.
Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.
Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green."
"The once thriving industrial city has suffered a dramatic decline following the global economic crisis.
According to Tim Prophit, a real estate agent, the crisis has led to a unprecedented portfolio of homes, but they are failing to sell.
He said there were homes on the market for $100 (£61), but an offer of just $10 (£6) would be likely to be accepted.
Speaking on a BBC 2 documentary, Requiem for Detroit, to be screened on Saturday, Mr Prophit said: "The property is listed by the city of Detroit as being worth $35,000 (£22,000), but the bank know that is impossible to ask.
"This part of town has got a lot of bad press in the media because it featured in Eminem's film 'Eight Mile', but that particular road is fifteen minutes up the road and that is a long way in Detroit."
Homes offered in viewing brochures as early 1920s example of colonial architecture would once have made handsome homes but are no longer sought after.
Mr Prophit, of The Bearing Group, said: "This house was foreclosed by the bank a couple of months ago and was offered to us to sell.
"But we can only put the boards up on the windows to protect the property, we can't be here 24 hrs a day to stop the squatters and the crack addicts from moving in.
"Detroit is a city in decline. We are known as the Murder Capital of America, because of the number of deaths each year."
Mr Prophit said: "Since the subprime mortgage crisis and the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the banks have been foreclosing on properties at an increase of 15 per cent every nine months."
Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking
"Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.
Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.
Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green."
posted by nolocontendere at 10:51 PM
2 Comments:
Detroit was a symbol of America during the flush years of the 20th century, and it is again, of an America in decline.
The radical surgery being proposed sounds like it might be necessary. But there are thousands of people still living in the areas to be disappeared, and you just know they're going to get screwed if/when this happens.
I was thinking the same abi. Those declining areas aren't cut and dried, probably with plenty of holdouts. I'll be interested in stories to see how egregiously the government abuses eminent domain.
It's tempting to think warm and fuzzy thoughts about pastoral beauty in place of collapsing dwellings. But we know the history of government going for the easy fix and phony facades.
Post a Comment
<< Home