Detroit housing prices

[Snakes Gould]

congrats.

[AussieDodger]

congrats.

[Dan Lambskin]

everybody in the Cafe should buy one

[Tavish]

Anyone actually been through the Detroit slum, which is a very large part of the city? You couldn't pay me $7500 to take one of those houses. Burned down crackhouses that are filled with homeless people trying avoid the gangs.

[Pogotheostrich]

One thing to bear in mind is that the price might not reflect the cost.

I remember seeing an article about a house for sale in Detroit for $1.... but then you also had a water bill, unpaid taxes, and like $20,000 - $30,000 of repair work before you could even call it a house.

I am sure they are selling for those prices inorder to avoid the property taxes. The assessed value must be many times the actual value.

If the property taxes aren't paid doesn't the city or county just assume ownership then?

[Dan Lambskin]

Anyone actually been through the Detroit slum, which is a very large part of the city? You couldn't pay me $7500 to take one of those houses. Burned down crackhouses that are filled with homeless people trying avoid the gangs.

all too many times...if only there was a way to knock down aboy 95% of the city and start over (like the bulldoze option in SimCity)

[CadensDad]

Anyone actually been through the Detroit slum, which is a very large part of the city? You couldn't pay me $7500 to take one of those houses. Burned down crackhouses that are filled with homeless people trying avoid the gangs.

all too many times...if only there was a way to knock down aboy 95% of the city and start over (like the bulldoze option in SimCity)

Kinda like SimCity meets Grand Theft auto huh?

[Mookie4ever]

Anyone actually been through the Detroit slum, which is a very large part of the city? You couldn't pay me $7500 to take one of those houses. Burned down crackhouses that are filled with homeless people trying avoid the gangs.

all too many times...if only there was a way to knock down aboy 95% of the city and start over (like the bulldoze option in SimCity)

Kinda like SimCity meets Grand Theft auto huh?

No, I think that he means like SimCity.

[Matthias]

If the property taxes aren't paid doesn't the city or county just assume ownership then?

I don't think you can get away that easily.

If you have a house that is worth say $300,000 and you don't pay your property taxes, and owe say $40,000, eventually the city might foreclose, sell your house, and take your back taxes out of the proceeds. But if you have a house that you only sell for $3,000 and owe $40,000 in back taxes, the city will send you a bill for $37,000.

That's why these selling prices aren't completely accurate; many of them you would have to assume the past obligations in addition to whatever the published advertising selling price would be.

It's no different than if you took out a $20,000 loan to buy a car that then depreciates down to $5,000. You can sell it for $5,000 but you're still on the hook for the $20k loan unless you include the assumption of the loan into the sale of the car, which is what these banks are trying to do with these bombed-out houses. They're not looking for the $7k or $5k or $1; they're looking to get off the hook for the liabilities.

[thedude]

If the property taxes aren't paid doesn't the city or county just assume ownership then?

I am not too familiar with tax law, but i don't think that the city has to take the home, if say it was a bank that owned the house after a foreclosure they might be better off going after the bank for the cash rather than taking the house. If i remember correctly, there are times when a town will refuse to take ownership of a worthless piece (like a superfund site) of land for failure to pay property taxes.