Buyers can snap up a home for $400 in this shrinking Southern city — but there’s a catch

NY Post ^ | 09/04/2024 | Realtor.com

[ChicagoConservative27]

Homebuyers desperate for a deal might be curious to learn more about a tiny town in Arkansas where homes are selling for just over $400.

In Pine Bluff, just 45 miles outside of Little Rock, a home was recently sold for $402.74 at a tax auction.

The city found itself thrust into the spotlight when a documentary titled “The City Left Behind: $400 Abandoned Homes in Pine Bluff” got 1.6 million views in the past three weeks on YouTube.

“There is a surplus of properties—cheap!—that are prime for restoration and redevelopment,” filmmaker Michael Schwarz told Realtor.com®. “But not enough people willing to move to Pine Bluff, or not enough people currently living in Pine Bluff who can afford it.”

[ChicagoConservative27]

Pine Bluff sounds terrible.

[Regulator]

South Chicago is better?

[usurper]

Pine Bluff sounds terrible.

My broke son just bought a house near there. It was about 300K. He says the area is quite lovely. The lack of jobs does not concern him as he's never had a job anyway.

Ahh, this generation.

[ansel12]

Poor retirees should jump on this and deals like it in other areas, homes, yards, fences, trees, driveways, electric meters and water meters, city sewer, city streets, it is a great deal for an old guy using all of his social security to exist in an apartment or junk trailer somewhere.

I have mentioned this for decades, friends without much money could buy homes next to or close to each other in these places.

[ChicagoConservative27]

That is great

[lakeman]

Pine Bluff had 23 homicides in 2021.[63] Pine Bluff had 23 murders in 2020 - a rate of 56.5 murders per 100,000 people. The national average was 6.5 murders per 100,000 people in 2020.[64]

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The 80 year olds in Rancho Palos Verdes slide area should jump at this.

[bk1000]

There are reasons for this.

[AppyPappy]

Some of this is retooling. You go from being a blue collar working town to a retirement town. Bluefield WV is an example. There is a large number of nice homes but few jobs to support them. Much of coal mining territory is cheap housing now.

[lefty-lie-spy]

Any news on Pine Ridge and the Jot ‘Em Down?
I think I could live there.

[DarrellZero]

It’s been that way as long as I can remember.

[martin_fierro]

I took a motorcycle ride through Pine Bluff once, and yeah, it's pretty bad.

I passed through some grandiose, barren civic center complex with equally oversized hotel alongside.

The hotel looked completely abandoned and falling apart, though reportedly Marriott will be renovating it (why?):

I'm told that crime in PB is reduced to pathetic levels -- like bicycle theft -- because there's nothing left to steal.

A remaining operational paper plant in the area is said to stink up everything.

The other big employer in the area appears to be a casino, so make of that what you will.

The motorcycle ride there bored me to tears, as the roads are all flat and straight. After that ride I try to stick to the Ozark mountains area.

[alexander_busek]

My broke son just bought a house near there. It was about 300K. [...] The lack of jobs does not concern him as he's never had a job anyway.

Made his fortune in the stock market, did he?

Seriously: Unless it was some freak "no money down, no monthly payments for the first three years" deal, how is this possible?

Regards,

[Verginius Rufus]

Pine Bluff is a college town. But if I lived in Arkansas it wouldn’t be my first choice for where to go to college.

[ifinnegan]

What’s the catch?

[Deepeasttx]

Was stationed at Pine Bluff Arsenal from 2002 and 2003. Needless to say, city proper was rarely ever visited. Little Rock (not much better but more options) was the choice of a night out.

[nitzy]

I’ll give you all a quick tip. If you are thinking of traveling through, staying in or moving to a particular city, just go to the city’s page in Wikipedia and scroll down to the demographics section.

Stay out of Pine Bluff.

[faithhopecharity]

Not seeking any confidential info but just curious

how does a person who’s never worked buy a house?

maybe I wasted all that time working?

[No name given]

That’s what I’m wondering also.

[Tax-chick]

The “catch” is simply that Pine Bluff is a dump with a declining population.