Friday, Mar 06, 2009
The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December was $7,500
Chicago Tribune: Detroit's outlook falls along with home prices
DETROIT — It may be tough to get financing for a new car these days, but in Detroit you can buy a house with a credit card.
The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December was $7,500, according to Realcomp, a listing service.
Not $75,000. Remove a zero—it's seven thousand five hundred dollars, substantially less than the lowest-price car on the new-car market.
Among the many dispiriting numbers that bleakly depict the decrepitude of this onetime industrial behemoth, the steep slide of housing values helps define the daunting challenge to anyone who wants to lead this shrinking, poverty-pocked city of about 800,000 people.
Posted by troy @ 12:59 PM (586 views) Add Comment
7 Comments
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1. rm96696 said...
London house prices would probably realistic with another 0 knocked off. 28000 quid for a house sounds about right.
2. Bear said...
During the Great Depression, one could buy a house in Chicago for one ounce of gold. We are still far from the bottom.
3. night said...
My sister married a guy from Detroit and moved over there when the exchange rate was good early last year. They're viewing a 4 bed detached, 2.5 bed this week in a "nice" part of town. It's been foreclosed, but the banks are desperate to get anyone to buy the houses lest they fall to rack and ruin.
It's on the market for $60K (USD), but they've been advised to put in an offer for $35K. At $35K the agents get the maximum commission, so they're likely to be happy. The banks will be lucky to get anything.
I'll be amazed if she pulls it off, but seriously, you'd pay $35K USD in a couple of years renting (a similar property).
Lessons? 1) The US market is possibly bottoming out, I can't see how things can get much cheaper than this. 2) While the average of the UK isn't likely to mirror Detroit, I think that shows that we potentially have a lot further to fall.
4. crunchy said...
2. night
The bottom of the mother of all collapses does not work like that. It is also not just money they need to worry about in these times.
The American nightmare has not began yet.
Personally I would not touch it with a barge poll untill future calm has been restored, if it ever is.
5. timmy t said...
I agree with Crunchy. This whole mess means that you can't just plot a graph and see what the house is worth. The house is worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for it. And other factors are coming into play now especially in places like Detroit. Like how safe is going to be to live there in a few years. Normal rules don't apply now.
6. inbreda said...
this is what will happen in the offshore tax havens if the government ever pulls its finger out and actually closes them down rather than just waffling on about it.
7. peter_2008 said...
Detroit's house is worthless, because there is no job and no future. If you search on Rightmove, the cheapest houses in the US probably comes from a town called Buffalo. You can get a 4 bed detached for $25,000. Why? Because the town before the mass unemployment in 70’s has 750,000 population and now only have 250,000. The main industry is the seasonal tourism to the Niagara Fall, but most people stay cross-board in Canada anyway, because it’s nicer and safer.