http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/7427691/Detroit-family-homes-sell-for-just-10.html

The once thriving industrial city has suffered a dramatic decline following the global economic crisis.

According to Tim Prophit, a real estate agent, the crisis has led to a unprecedented portfolio of homes, but they are failing to sell.

He said there were homes on the market for $100 (£61), but an offer of just $10 (£6) would be likely to be accepted.

Speaking on a BBC 2 documentary, Requiem for Detroit, to be screened on Saturday, Mr Prophit said: "The property is listed by the city of Detroit as being worth $35,000 (£22,000), but the bank know that is impossible to ask.

"This part of town has got a lot of bad press in the media because it featured in Eminem's film 'Eight Mile', but that particular road is fifteen minutes up the road and that is a long way in Detroit."

Homes offered in viewing brochures as early 1920s example of colonial architecture would once have made handsome homes but are no longer sought after.

Mr Prophit, of The Bearing Group, said: "This house was foreclosed by the bank a couple of months ago and was offered to us to sell.

"But we can only put the boards up on the windows to protect the property, we can't be here 24 hrs a day to stop the squatters and the crack addicts from moving in.

"Detroit is a city in decline. We are known as the Murder Capital of America, because of the number of deaths each year."

Mr Prophit said: "Since the subprime mortgage crisis and the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the banks have been foreclosing on properties at an increase of 15 per cent every nine months.

"Last year my firm the Bearing Group dealt with 394 foreclosed properties which all sold for under $1000.

Five years ago the average home price in Detroit was hovering around the $100,000 (£61,000) now that has fallen to $11,500 (£7,000).

Detroit, home to the three big US car makers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, Detroit has been hit by a perfect storm of unemployment, falling house prices and the near bankruptcy of the automotive industry.

Figures from the U S Bureau Of Labor Statistics show Detroit has the worst unemployment in the entire country at 17.7 per cent.

Just make sure it's not in the zone(-s) that are gonna get turned back into farmland ... talk about a waste of ten bucks ...

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35767727/ns/us_news-life/

Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

Blighted city considers plan to turn large swaths of land back into fields

DETROIT - Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green.

the next time they form a city maybe they should under stand we don't want to live in crime infested nieabors with crime infested schools that don't care about the kids schooling rather than there politics . and this is just a start . we need a way to get rid of the corrupt for ever like it was in the old days .

Ya know....almost every article and/or post I see about this idea treats it like it's an absolutely terrible thing.

I don't understand the thought process behind thinking setting up Detroit would be a bad thing.

Why not use space currently occupied by vacant properties ( many of which are owned by banks through foreclosures, many others of which are owned by absentee landowners or owners who simply don't give a damn about the property ), tear down the houses and put those lots to good use??

It would brighten the city a bit ( which, by the way has a very nice downtown in the area of Comerica Park and Ford Field ), get rid of the blight that has been endemic in Detroit for many years, make the police and fire departments jobs easier by shrinking the area they are required to cover, and it would be something for the people of Detroit to take pride in.

In some ( a lot ) of the neighborhoods, there is a sense of hopelessness because of the surrounding area and the conditions. The residents of Detroit would be MUCH more likely to take pride in their city, do whatever they can to cut down on the crime rates, and keep their neighborhoods in better shape if they didn't have that sense of hopelessness.

Give the people something to take pride in and they will work to keep it.

GIVE THEM SOMETHING AND THEY WELL BE PROUD TO TAKE CARE OF IT ? What do you mean [ give them something ? ] they had a city already and they burned it . Let those of you that want to , rebuild it. I don't have any spare change any more .
why don't we tax the drug dealers . I heard them on tv claiming to make $6000. per day . But don't call on me I don't owe anyone anything .

" ... Give the people something to take pride in and they will work to keep it. ... "

GIVE them something ... ? Surely you jest ... 'GIVE' is the reason they DON'T (and DIDN'T) take care of what they were GIVEN. They didn't have to EARN it. Things that aren't EARNED aren't VALUED. No, make 'em WORK for what they have and THEN they'll value it. 'GIVE' ... ha. What a joke. Not with MY money, they don't ...