In One Home, a Mighty City’s Rise and Fall
September 26, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS DETROIT — On a grassy lot on a quiet block on a graceful boulevard stands the answer to a perplexing question: Why does the typical house in Detroit sell for $7,100? The brick-and-stucco home at 1626 W. Boston Blvd. has watched almost a century of Detroit’s ups and downs, through industrial brilliance and racial discord, economic decline and financial collapse. Its owners have played a part in it all. There was the engineer whose innovation elevated auto makers into kings; the teacher who watched fellow whites flee to the suburbs; the black plumber who broke the color barrier; the cop driven out by crime. The last individual owner was a subprime borrower, who lost the house when investors foreclosed. A city that began a slow slide 60 years ago has now entered a free fall, pushed by the twin crises of housing and cars. Detroit’s population peaked at 1.85 million in the 1950 census. It is now less than half that. In July, unemployment hit 28.9%, almost...
$1 Houses Video
September 7, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Here is a video we shot of one of the “war zone’ neighborhoods. These are those $1 houses everyone has been talking about in the news!! Call us at 248.802.4200 if you are in the market for serious real estate investments.
Home Foreclosure Prices Now Starting at One Dollar
March 29, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Everyone is talking about the $1 home in Detroit, but is it really worth it? Now is the time to buy a home. Banks are giving homes away, right now. If you go to www.realtor.com, the official website of the National Association of Realtors, you can search for homes listed for sale with Realtors, and in Detroit Michigan, you will find homes for sale from as little as $1.00. Many homes in Detroit have already sold for $1.00. At this time last year, homeowners were watching their home’s values free fall, and still when homeowners and their potential buyers ask if home values have hit bottom, one can only wonder how many more homes will go so low. The economy has reached a point in some areas like Detroit Michigan, where there is such a glut of homes on the market that it is no longer cost effective for banks to hold out for more money. These homes do have a wide variety of issues and so they are priced in such a way that the seller of the property will be writing a check at the closing,...
$86 million film studio planned for former MGM Grand casino
March 29, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
The vacant Detroit building formerly used as MGM Grand’s temporary casino will be transformed this year into an $86 million Hollywood-style digital animation and visual effects studio directly employing more than 400 people. The Detroit Center Studios is a partnership between Wonderstruck Studios L.L.C. owned by film and video game deal-maker Michele Richards, a Detroit native, and Los Angeles-based real estate developers SHM Partners. The state today awarded the project a 12-year, $16.9 million Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax credit and an $11.7 million infrastructure credit under the state’s new film incentive laws. Detroit also is considering property tax abatements. The deal calls for the studio to begin operation this year, with 413 direct and 287 indirect jobs. Terms and financing were not released. The site is owned by MGM, but it’s unclear if the film studio will buy or lease the facility, which will include sound stages, offices, screening rooms, a commissary, editing...
