Monday, March 9, 2009

Buying in Bulk: Homes

Apparently, word has traveled about the situation in Detroit. The AP is now reporting the average home sale in Jan 2009 was 6,035. Though, to put it in prospective, in 2003 the average home sale was $46,702. But still, that's a pretty big drop.

Here is a snippet from the AP article:

"Welcome to Landlord Nation, where foreclosure notices are plentiful and for-sale signs offer at least 1,800 homes for under $10,000 that once were worth at least 10 times more.
In extreme cases, homes are on sale for $1 or less, which has enticed investors to Detroit from as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia.
"In the past few months, I've picked up 10 new clients from out of state that are buying in bulk," said Mike Shannon, a suburban Detroit real estate agent. His office specializes in foreclosures in a city that's among the national leaders.
"They're coming to us, saying `Look, I want to buy 50, 100, 1,000.' They want to own every decent and cheap house they can find."
Despite a stagnant retail housing market, real estate sales of foreclosed homes are booming. Shannon regularly fields calls from eager prospects, and recently sold 30 homes in one day to one buyer. A trio of U.K. investors has bought a half-dozen and plans many more."

3 comments:

Jamie said...

It's all very interesting to me. I mean, the problem with buying houses in Detroit, is that it's a ghost town. I don't really see a recovery for that city anytime soon, if ever. So yeah, you can get a cheap house, but when there's not even a supermarket in town, not to mention any kind of employment opportunity, what do you do with it?

On the other hand, it could be a great opportunity to start a cult, or a destination theme-park or gambling operation, perhaps. Buy a whole city block or two, you could pretty much have your own government. Possibilities...

Benny said...

Jamie,

I thought the same thing! You could start your own colony. But, the only people who could move there would be professional internet bloggers. Because...there are no jobs.

Corey said...

Maybe Detroit can become the next retirement area due to low housing costs. :-)

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