Posted on 11/22/2014 6:01:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Bankrupt Detroit’s thousands of empty buildings are being flogged at rock-bottom prices — and Chinese investors are answering the siren call of unbeatable deals.
With family homes regularly selling for around $10,000, the beleaguered Motor City is now the number-four destination for Chinese housing investors in the U.S. Bigger spenders have already snapped up some of Detroit’s most iconic commercial buildings.
“There are factories, commercial real estate and upscale areas around Detroit with proximity to good schools that are worth investing in,” said Wang Ning, deputy manager in charge of international business at China online real estate agency SouFun.
The firm, which lists hundreds of photos of abandoned Detroit homes on its website, says it received more than 1,000 telephone inquiries the week after the city claimed the dubious distinction of having filed the country's largest municipal bankruptcy in July 2013.
Chinese interest picked up steam after a TV report claimed that homes in Detroit could be bought for the price of a pair of shoes.
After the program one user posted on Twitter-like Weibo: “700,000 people, quiet, clean air, no pollution, democracy — what are you waiting for?” The comment generated millions of responses.
The influx of cash is welcome in Detroit. Earlier this month, a bankruptcy court ruling approved a complex restructuring of the city's $18 billion in accumulated debt to end a costly and contentious chapter of the city's long-running financial decline. Once among the greatest manufacturing cities in the world with the highest per capita income in the United States, many of its homes and office buildings now sit empty and derelict. Its officials are looking to China help salvage the gutted city.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday embarked on a week-long trip to the country, his fourth visit since 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
The chinese there ought to build The Great Wall of Detroit, to keep the GibsmeDat barbarians out. Not only that, the chinese will see what American communism looks like, close up and personal.
Hmmm...they might call it New Western Mongolia, or New Manchuria, or...
Did anyone catch the part about Obama granting Chinese businessmen and tourists 10-year visas? If you follow the link, Obama says the move will boost jobs in the United States.
Does this mean a wave of Chinese immigration?
At least them come with ambition and a work ethic.
Good ruck!
Better check for overdue taxes and water bills owed on the property before you give the owner his pair of shoes price. Lots of overdue bills in Detroit and Detroit needs $.
Purchases of run-down Detroit homes headed by prominent Chinese investor Wei To Lo.
My father who was a pilot in WWII told me they always picked pass phrases with lots of L’s to trip up the Japs.
Lotsa Luck was a favorite.
Instead of WASTING his money on charities, Bill Gates, Buffett and the rest of the rich assholes should be buying up detroit, taking the loss and explaining it as “environmentally friendly/community centered” philanthropy, and creating parks, farms or factories in place of the current ruins.
~Moving in a number of Asians would improve the overall intelligence of the area quickly.~
It won’t be pretty for aborigines.
Absent a major positive change in city government this will be a financial sink hole The ghost of Coleman Young is rubbing its hands in anticipation
LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!
there we have it.
Most Real Estate in the bowels of the Rust Belt has not fard well at all in recent decade
Heh... at least when the Japanese thought they were riding high they bought Rockefeller Center, Hawaiian golf courses, and other things that would eventually be worth something.
Asians moving in would cut the crime rate...
I would never have found Hertz without them. God Bless Detroit.
They do now.
Eventually most of our cities will go through what Detroit has, and Detroit will be ahead of the curve by then.
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