Do not think that these are move in condition houses..........most have no plumbing i.e. copper tubes have been stolen, no furnace, electricity etc. be ready to invest 100 to 200% of the purchase price into the property. Further, there is no rental market in Detroit or huge foreclosure towns. You live in say Chicago and property is left idle but locked. What happens when you go there next, copper pipes gone again! New carpets cut out and gone and furnace is stolen too. Somewhere I read that in the US, black population has pretty much the same standing in economic and net worth sense as it had in the late 70s. Only very little improvement in last three decades.
Nice map krazykarl. I checked where grandma used to live, whew! Of course her house has since been burned out and demolished.
these are terrible deals.....it'll cost you another 200k renovation before you can even step into the house
The ACR thing caught my eye... "The partners of CWS have been buying and selling properties in the city of Detroit and surrounding area for over 20 years. They have a working knowledge of the City of Detroit Building and Safety Department and thus can secure inspections and ACR's in a time and cost efficient manner. Any company or person that has bought or sold property the city of Detroit understands how difficult the process can be." "One of the most difficult tasks is getting the property inspected. Inspectors generally refuse to inspect properties that are not secure from trespassers, have uncut grass or un-removed snow. Even if the inspector fails to inspect the property due to above mentioned problems, your company will be charged a service fee. Inspecting the property on another day is an additional charge as well." http://www.cityworksservicing.com/
So is it a good area or, like Nonlinear's map suggests, a bad area. BTW, you couldn't get me to live there no matter how good the deal looked. There probably isn't very much upward mobility, and if you start "styl'in and profil'in" it's like putting a big sign on your back that says, "I have a lot of money, please come rip me off" (and that's the best option) ... ... as always, with real estate, it's location-location-loction.