Posted on 05/29/2014 2:49:35 PM PDT by Mikey_1962
Detroit spent as much as $537,000 per home renovating 30 houses starting in 2011 under a federal program to fight blight before selling most for less than $100,000 each, according to a newspaper's investigation published on Thursday.
The Detroit Land Bank transformed eyesores into gems, with features such as glass-tiled bathrooms, stainless steel appliances, underground sprinkler systems and, in some cases, geothermal heating, The Detroit News reported
A goal was to entice middle class families into the East English Village and Boston Edison neighborhoods. Land bank Executive Director Richard Wiener, who took over in January, said officials "are now moving in a different direction."
The bank is working to sell the last three homes in the program. It spent nearly $8.7 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on 30 homes. So far, sales have brought in about $2 million.
An average of $290,000 was spent on each home, with the 13 most expensive ones costing $300,000 to $537,000 apiece. Susan Hanafee learned from The News that $430,000 was spent on the three-story Boston Edison home she bought last year for $80,000.
"It kind of makes me sick," she said. "It didn't really need that much rehab. ... It makes me sad to think about the money that was poured into a particular house and ... to know my neighbors are having to scrape enough together to put a new roof on."
(Excerpt) Read more at therepublic.com ...
Second busiest freight crossing on the continent. Its why a developer wanted to buy Belle Isle a while back and turn it into a tax free territory. It wasn’t legal but it was an indicator of the potential.
Lots of money in town this weekend with the Grand Prix coming to town. Its a great town for sports too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTLa-HE91B8
White boy in a rough part of town.
If you had only carried a black AR-15 you would have blended right in!
Could work but what about crime that drives potential homeowners away?
That’s why you buy homes together on a street block. That way everyone can keep an eye on each other’s property. Installing HD video cameras with night vision on the block would be good, too.
Have home security systems, plus neighbors carry all the time, going to the range often, and having a good relationship with the local police department beat cops, and posting warning signs (not neighborhood watch signs) that tell criminals they will suffer severe consequences if they choose to do crime on this block.
Nice clip; good post/tagline. BUMP!
It took many decades to bring Detroit to its knees so it is important that those who choose to settle this wild frontier have to be in it for the long haul.
‘How government makes a profit’ is a new book in the fiction section of your local bookstore.
LOL!
Yep, the Near East Side is bad.
The Lower East Side where I grew up is devastated.
My block has 5 houses left out of 120 forty years ago.
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