# Foreclosed houses in Detroit



## mkirby

Saw a special on T.V....houses in Detroit, Michigan are going for a just few *hundred* dollars each. If you're flush with cash and good with a hammer, and can handle living in Detroit, you might consider jumping on that shit.


----------



## bobNkamille

i dont know i am getting some money soon but i fucking hate the cold but that would be pretty cool to by a place a fix it up. I just hope the economy keeps on tumbling then there would be alot of that type stuff


----------



## bobNkamille

See i dont think i would have the problem of walking every wherer cause eh im in no hurry to be any where. But crack heads suck ass a hole lot


----------



## Angela

Even the lure of a $200 house wouldn't get me to live in Detroit. That city already has plenty of places to squat for free and I've never been tempted to move there.


----------



## john1158

rememberusername said:


> Living in Detroit sucks whether or not you can get a house for $200. Its the motor city, which means without a car, your shit out of luck. Its the ugliest city Ive been to so far. Ive always said that Detroit is squatters paradise because the large amounts of abandoned buildings, buts its also crack haven.




i grew up there pretty much....
there is no reason to be there.....
i go back every few years and then hate life....
ugh


----------



## Arapala

Man, i don't know what you guys are talking about. I live in fucking Flint Michigan. Detroit is like a dream to me! Haha no joke! I love going to Detroit, once you get used to the crack heads, its not to bad. Not to meantion, all of the wonderful people i know there! Next time you are there, take a visit to Trumbull Ave. There is a really cool housing collective for activists, there. I am sure they will let ya stay on the couch. Not to mention, they have been in operation for over 20 years! Stay out of the bad areas of Detroit and you will be fine. (but if you are buying a $200 its going to be in the ghetto which i do NOT reccomend going in. At least if you are white. no offense but its true.)


----------



## drunken marauder

Michigan has tons of foreclosed homes period. Prolly doesn't matter what part. But I hate Detroit.. Its just a suck hole with insane home bums.


----------



## DigitalYouth

personally i really enjoy living in detroit, i think most people that dont like the city, just dont get the city, that or its not hip enough, detroit is cool because of the fact that its the most uncool city you can possibly live in. but theres a lot of really great shit going on here, you can literally do pretty much anything you want... complete freedom. not to mention the fact that you rarely need to buy supplies for projects because you can find whatever you need by just looking around for it. also the city has a lot more soul than a lot of other places ive been.

between its endless unfulfilled potential, there never being a dull moment, the musical and anarchist communities, i could go on for while about why its a cool place... but like any other city or town its all about who you know and what you make of it.

for me personally, the good outweighs the bad by far.


----------



## mkirby

I'm hoping housing prices will start to plummet more in other areas. I don't mind living in the ghetto, but I wouldn't want to live in Michigan myself. Too cold, reminds me too much of Michael Moore.


----------



## LovelyAcorns

I'm increasingly tempted to move down there. I live a bit north, and the first article I had read about the anarchists a few years back had included a sentence along the lines of "I hope they don't think of us as a bunch of white suburban kids moving down to the city", which, of course, had the same affect as saying "don't look down" or "If anyone asks, I was nowhere near that recruitment center and have no idea how to build a pipe bomb" and scared me off for a few years. But as I get to talking with some of them, they seem fine. 

Yeah, Detroit has a lot of problems, but intentionally moving to cities without a lot of problems is the quickest way to make hipster enclaves and this white flight bullshit is, well, bullshit. I've noticed that most of the white people who get mugged are middle class folk just using the city for its event halls or young kids trying to pretend they struggled through college. That's not a race issue, just basic criminal sense. Its the same group that gets mugged when they go to Europe or Mexico. I'm white and have never been bothered in Detroit, probably because I'm usually around POCs, but if you live in Detroit and all your friends are white I'm kind of worried. Crackheads attack everyone, so they might as well be left out of the equation.

Plus, I've been told that since the city can't keep up most the parks, they'll give you free land to garden. Combine that with either cheap housing or easy squating (and rampant stealing of utilities) and you have damn good place. I'd love Michigan to become the black-and-red counterpart to Oregon's black-and-green.


----------



## Birdy

Houses are getting like that here in florida. In fact some families will buy a foreclosed home and run it down so the rest of the houses values go down so their friends can buy it. At least that's what my dad told me cuz his friend talked to one of the families doing that.
It's kinda shitty, but I think that'd be neat for a whole group of friends/family to do if they're close. I don't mind run down places too much hahaa.


----------



## LovelyAcorns

Birdy said:


> Houses are getting like that here in florida. In fact some families will buy a foreclosed home and run it down so the rest of the houses values go down so their friends can buy it. At least that's what my dad told me cuz his friend talked to one of the families doing that.
> It's kinda shitty, but I think that'd be neat for a whole group of friends/family to do if they're close. I don't mind run down places too much hahaa.



Reverse gentrification? Fucking beautiful.


----------



## Arapala

LovelyAcorns said:


> Plus, I've been told that since the city can't keep up most the parks, they'll give you free land to garden. Combine that with either cheap housing or easy squating (and rampant stealing of utilities) and you have damn good place. I'd love Michigan to become the black-and-red counterpart to Oregon's black-and-green.



What! i have never heard that about the parks, that would be rad!

Also i couldn't agree more the last sentence. Detroit would be the shit.
I love Detroit! -minus the crack heads...

:zombie:


----------



## DigitalYouth

Birdy said:


> Houses are getting like that here in florida. In fact some families will buy a foreclosed home and run it down so the rest of the houses values go down so their friends can buy it. At least that's what my dad told me cuz his friend talked to one of the families doing that.
> It's kinda shitty, but I think that'd be neat for a whole group of friends/family to do if they're close. I don't mind run down places too much hahaa.



Thats called block busting... traditionally block busting was a method used by minority families in order to take over neighborhoods... one minority family would move into a white neighborhood, then all of the white folks would move out which opened up the door for a new racial demographic. unfortunatly this also resulted in less tax money which caused these neighborhoods to deteriorate. which is the case with much of detroit.


----------



## Birdy

Damn dude, my mom just looked at a foreclosed house on tuesday I believe and there were kids squatting it. It's a fancy ass neighborhood too lol. I asked her what their stuff looked like cuz her and her boyfriend poked around their things a little bit (Horrible I know...I'd hate strangers touching my stuff...) and she said it looked like mine. Hah. She said they left the door WIDE open and all their stuff was upstairs cuz you couldn't see into the upstairs. I felt bad when she told me she notified the owner and he had no idea they were there. Wish I woulda been at her house this week so I coulda hung around the place and at least warned them my mom called on them....


----------



## Angela

Just make sure that you remember, no matter how cheap the selling price is, ownership comes with all those pesky little things like yearly property taxes and maintaining the house up to whatever the city considers the minimal standards of it's codes! Even if you've got the cash to buy something, do you really have enough money to buy into the property system? That's the question that folks should ask themselves before they consider these kinda properties. I'm not a fan of Detroit but even if houses in an area I really liked were going for ultra cheap I would think twice before buying one. Why buy when you can squat!


----------



## drun_ken

scroll scroll scroll.....so yeah a few years mabey 1....be4 katrina n.o. said yes to squaters rights....why pay fer a shit hole in cold ass detoirt when post katrina no.o. serriously is a squaters paradise???????seriously?


----------



## finn

I don't know if any of those cities would be a squatter's paradise, nola or detroit. Both are tough cities for anyone new at it. Some places in europe seems to fit that bill better. Also, electrical code is a serious pain for anyone who has had to deal with it, which you will have to deal with if you've bought a house with the wiring ripped out. Electricians are very expensive. Also, nola also has a fun termite problem.

I have a friend trying to claim a house in nola using the squatter method, and it just keeps running into complications, so it's not as squatter friendly as you might think.


----------



## DigitalYouth

yes taxes are another thing to remember about in detroit, the city has insaine taxes for property owners. but then again im no where near looking into buying a place at this point in my life. but as far as the actual houses themselfs, i remember reading on one of the comments about there being really big houses foreclosed, in detroit you can find massive old homes left and right. the house that i live in was built in the 1880's and we currently have about 10 people here right now. the place is huge. thats one of the benefits of living in an old city, the attention to the smallest details in the majority of buildings is just amazing. it really gives the neighborhood a lot of character.

but yeah, just going about your regular business in this city you see a number of houses that make you want to become a homeowner. 

another one of the things about detroit that keeps it cool is that the majority of people dont want to come here, thus preserving its badassness for those who do spend their time there.


----------



## macks

I visited Detroit a year and a half ago or so and I think if you got a BUNCH of people together to live with so it'd be interesting you could totally pull it off. There were literally whole neighborhoods full of old victorian homes, I'd guess that 80-90% of them were vacant. While I was there I also picked up the statistic that Detroit has one of the lowest police per capita rates in the country. Also, since the people that live in the city city can't afford to have cars the streets are great for biking! However, there seemed to be lots of gross drug problems and the city was depressing as hell (although it's decay was not). Some cool community projects were going on there too.. 

This is all from a like 3 day visit so if someone that lives there now knows this info isn't right anymore feel free to correct me


----------



## Matt Derrick

haha, i dunno if anyone has checked out the "linkbacks" below (other websites that are linking to this topic) but i think stp just got it's best compliment ever:

Detroit: A Homebuyer's Paradise - Topic Powered by Eve For Enterprise

specifically:



> Check out these posts from a thread on "Foreclosed houses in Detroit" on a site called "Squat the Planet".
> 
> Foreclosed Houses in Detroit
> 
> Squat the Planet
> 
> 
> It's a very disturbing "self-help" site- the kind that makes you feel like Republican after perusing it for only a few minutes!


----------



## LovelyAcorns

mattpist said:


> haha, i dunno if anyone has checked out the "linkbacks" below (other websites that are linking to this topic) but i think stp just got it's best compliment ever:



Didn't even notice this site had a linkback (still don't see it?).


Anyways, Michigan shuts 8 prison facilities to save $120M - Jun. 5, 2009 8 prisons down. Sadly, no early releases and they are actually increasing the parole supervision budget, but I'm going to choose to be blindly idealist and only pay attention to the fact Michigan is closing prisons down. Woohoo!


----------



## Arapala

I also dont see the link back thing, but anyways, that is awesome!


----------



## LovelyAcorns

Kmart offers unemployment discount - Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money

Alright, moving to Detroit is even easier. 20% off shit at K-mart if you are unemployed....anybody here unemployed? Not sure if it works in conjunction with food stamps, but might be worth checking into.


----------



## drybonezz

rememberusername said:


> Living in Detroit sucks whether or not you can get a house for $200. Its the motor city, which means without a car, your shit out of luck. Its the ugliest city Ive been to so far. Ive always said that Detroit is squatters paradise because the large amounts of abandoned buildings, buts its also crack haven.



I squatted a house in Detroit with some friends for about 3 months and it was amazing. Also, there are a lot of very beautiful sites in Detroit, you just have to know where to look. Detroit is the biggest city in Michigan, meaning it's huge, there is no way you saw all of Detroit. Hell, I've lived in Metro Detroit all my life besides the 4 months I stayed in Ohio and I haven't even seen all of Detroit and I've spent A LOT of time there. I've traveled a lot of different places in the US and Detroit is probably one of the top ten prettiest cities on my list. Not all of it is crack heaven either.


----------



## JungleBoots

being a detroiter myself i absolutely love the city, few outsiders recognise how great it is. it took me three or four years to realize how great it is. not something you can do in a single visit.

for people specifically interested in buying forclosed homes and learning how to budget inorder to pay property taxes and what not there is an organization called Design 99. they have a showcase in hamtramk and do alot of work trying to turn their neighborhoods green.

and houses for 100 are ussually stripped, no windows, no insulation, no pipes, and no electrical wiring (copper scrappers). but i've heard one of the worst cases a house sold for 1$ totally sripped, needed a complete renovation, and a new roof. but the news said the total cost to fix it up to livable standards was only about 32 grand. which for a house is extremely cheap.

but like i said about design 99, they bought a house for 100 bucks same condition, refurbished it, fixed it up, and took it off the grid with solar and wind power all for under about 2 grand. they went on to buy two more houses in the same neighborhood and fixxed them up for just as cheap.

they ended up on national television some time last winter i think. I just saw them do a lecture at the Cranbrook Museum early december. Really great people.

on top of design 99 there are at least two anarchist collectives, one on trumble the Trumbleplex, and another one farther north east. i forget what it was called though. (mostly just using space for music venues)

and as detroit has been getting more attention like Design 99 has been getting it, more and more bohemian crowds are coming in to the city. It may not be hip now, but it sure as hell will if a real art scene starts up in its streets. dont forget kids, the Motorcity is also Motown, America's capitol of music revolution. rock and roll, soul, jazz, proto punk, techno, all that shit was firmly grounded in Detroit's history and that history that soul is not going to leave any time soon.

but tbh.. ive never run into crack heads. i tend to stay out of the southwest detroit hoods which is where most of the gang and crime violence is also.

Mid-town is beautiful, bustling, as bustling as Detroit can get, you've got the museum district, Wayne state University, the College for Creative Studies (*is an alumni), great clubs, tons of hospitals, the cultural bohemian hodgepodge of Hamtramk is just to the north, and there are more cheap victorian homes (many vacant) than you can shake a stick at, all of them enormous. and like someone said above, the streets are very very bike friendly. The people are nice, its not like NYC where you cant go ten feet without bumping into someone you dont want to.

life in the D is good.


----------

