Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ghostrider]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134705/After-bargain-Own-bedroom-home-Detroit-JUST-500--city-revealed-cheapest-housing-U-S.html#ixzz1t4x9vgdO

It sounds like a bargain, but I'm not sure what I would do in Detroit.

[caniff]

I'm sure stories like this provide a useful diversion to the Brits own unenviable situation, but Detroit was/is a city that went through a period of unconstrained urban sprawl and now it is pulling back into a more (hopefully) manageable civic incarnation. Decay of the periphery, which unfortunately needs to happen.

Yay.

[ajosshi]

Detroit Gives Free Homes to Police
http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/08/19/detroit-gives-free-homes-to-police.html

[Italy37612]

You would actually have to pay me to live in Detroit... A LOT.

[fosterman]

who ever said you have to live there.
buy 4 houses, drop 2 grand.
and then leave them. rent them for dirty cheap, try and find tenants who will actually pay your rent, and wait , wait, wait.
and who knows , maybe 50 years from now , the area will get redeveloped and now your houses are worth 100.000 !

[J Rock]

I grew up at 12 mile and Woodward (for those of you know anything about that area) that's a pretty decent area, safe, everyone keeps their lawns/houses up. If you travel down the road just 4 miles, it's honestly like a dividing line. Tons of trash, bums with signs begging, pawn stores, LOTS of fried chicken fast food restaurants, it feels like a different state almost.

I just have the feeling that a nice well spoken person from the burbs would get their ass handed to them down there if they tried to move in. These places they are talking about for $500 are pretty deep in the ghetto. I personally dont think I could handle it.

[radcon]

[PaperTiger]

If you have some home-improvement skills, some of those houses could refurbished (probably by cannibalizing a few other houses in the area) and turned into a pretty nice place. Many of the houses and buildings in that area are some real treasures of architectural beauty. Given the state of the economy and the price of the homes in question, it's a bit surprising more people aren't getting into it.

If you've read about the zombie themed park they're planning there...I think a similar approach to security would suffice. You would have to nut up and protect your stuff tho'. Walling in small sections of the city to keep the thugs out might be effective. It's like a new frontier...land for the taking if you got the nerve.

A bunch of these look just like a lot of places I grew up around in Detroit:
http://www.100abandonedhouses.com/
With a little work and a lot of razorwire, firepower, and salvage...you could carve about a very affordable slice o' heaven. I'll take #35.

[AsiaESLbound]

Might be a good investment if you can take over an entire neighborhood to gentrify it, convince the public it's safe and pleasant, and target a new middle class locally to buy it from you house for house, but the economy is uncertainly shaky. Detroit announced a few months ago they were turning off half their street lights so it's no surprise that many houses there are worth nothing.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/manchesterwmur-18211745/streetlights-will-be-turned-off-to-save-money-29926972.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-24/half-of-detroit-s-streetlights-may-go-out-as-city-shrinks.html

Little more than economic decline is happening in a job market paying 3rd world country peanuts with a 1st world cost of living where few can truly afford even a cheapish house so people are increasingly rooming with relatives or paying about 50% to 60% of full time take home pay for rent while keeping a car going paycheck to paycheck. The necessary stimulation programs to fire up a new day are still absent. Times are getting leaner...