Reality Check

Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1:

"The home, at 8111 Traverse Street, a few blocks from Detroit City Airport, was the nicest house on the block when it sold for $65,000 in November 2006, said neighbor Carl Upshaw. But the home was foreclosed last summer, and it wasn't long until 'the vultures closed in,' Upshaw said. 'The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then they broke in and took everything else.'"

yeah - so they were trying to sell a home which already was coming with a $4000 debt and waterbill (no price given) all of which would be assessed to the buyer on completion of the sell, in an area that was obviously crime ridden - c'mon they stole the boards that boarded up the house - they are lucky they even got the $1 for it.

But even with all that you have to remember a few other things ...
a) at the height of the price bubble, the house was only worth $65,ooo so it couldn't be anything to write home about
b)it is located near the airport, so air traffic noise must have been horrid.
c)the house has been totally gutted
d)property taxes on the house are nearly $4000 annually

so that means that even with the bank expecting to pick up the current tax & water bills, the gal that bought this will have to fight an awful lot of buracracy to get things back to where they should be -- not to mention the bank full of money she will have to put into the property to pull it up to code for renting out or reselling .... and then there are the looters who already have gutted the house who will just gut it again on her.

this was less a statement about the US economy or housing 'crisis' as it is about the problems that get created when airports are allowed to make neighborhoods unlivable.