The difficult part is when owners just abandon homes and let them go to weed. It costs the cities at least $10,000 just to raze them. Cities like Detroit are absolutely blighted with these abandoned homes. If they were turned back into green space those places would be much more livable.
Because of the building code process, and the fact that it is practically impossible in a place like Detroit to rehab a place yourself without using expensive contractors for all the various trades, they’re getting what they deserve from too much regulation.