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Posted almost 10 years ago

Gulp...$2 Billion to Clean Up Detroit

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Anyone with a passing familiarity with the issue of Detroit blight knew that the price tag to clean it up would be hefty. Exactly how hefty became apparent with the recent report released by the Detroit Blight Removal Task force – about two billion dollars over the next five years. That includes $850 million to clean up almost 85,000 residential houses and lots, about half of which are such eyesores that they are set to be demolished.

The task ahead is painful indeed for the bankrupt city that Henry Ford built into an automotive powerhouse more than a century ago, but what other choice do the city and state administrators have? We assume that a conversion to an Escape from New York style maximum security prison comprised of the entire urban area is out of the question.

Other than escaping bankruptcy, eradicating Detroit’s urban blight is the most pressing issue in the plan to reinvigorate the city. For decades the city has deteriorated into a decaying, crime-ridden, cesspool that drives citizens out and scares others from moving in. The result? Tens of thousands of houses, apartments, and duplexes that literally nobody wants.

A note of interest to income property investors. One task force recommendation is to eliminate the practice of auctioning tax-foreclosed properties for as little as $500. In recent years, this has been an open invitation to bottom-feeding speculators to snap up houses, do nothing to renovate them, and rent them out a few months at a time to anyone who can scrape enough change from between the couch cushions. Now they’ve got more crime and drug-fueled, blighted neighborhoods than before.

The task force and city leaders put forth a positive image at a recent press conference coinciding with the release of the blight report. We certainly applaud them for that, but this is a herculean job in store for the city. If they succeed in repairing Detroit’s image and returning the city into a socially and economically healthy environment once more, it will be a story for the ages.

Good luck, Detroit! (Image: Flickr | ellenm1)

The JasonHartman.com Team
"The Complete Solution for Income Property Investors"


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