Detroit homes sell for $1

Detroit has been in decline for decades; its falling population is now well below a million – half of its 1950 peak. But the recent mortgage crisis and the fall of the big car makers into bankruptcy has pushed the town into a realm unique among big cities in America.

One in five houses left empty as foreclosures mount and property prices drop by 80%

Houses on sale for a few dollars are something of an urban legend in some parts of the US on the back of the mortgage crisis that drove millions of people from their homes, but in Detroit it is no myth.

You’ll find these houses among boarded-up, burnt-out and rotting buildings lining deserted streets, places where the population is shrinking so fast entire blocks are being demolished to make way for urban farms.

One in five houses now stand empty in the city that launched the automobile age, forged America’s middle-class and blessed the world with Motown.

The recent financial crash forced wholesale foreclosures among people unable to pay their mortgages or who walked away from houses that fell to a fraction of the value of the loans they had taken out on them.

Setting fire to houses to claim the insurance and kill off the mortgage is not uncommon in Detroit; But it is more common for owners to just walk away from their homes and mortgages.

Joan Wilson, a real estate agent in the north-west side of the city, whose firm is offering a three-bedroom house on Albany street for $1, says that more than half of the houses she sells are foreclosures in the tens of thousands of dollars. “The vast majority of people that call to inquire, almost the first thing out of their mouth is that they want to buy a foreclosure. I have had telephone calls from people looking online that live, for example, in England or California, who’ve never set foot in the area. They’re calling about one specific house they see online. I tell them they need to look at the neighborhood. Is it the only house standing within a mile?”

Do Your Homework People!

Should Detroit Legalize Marijuana?

Recently Michigan became one of the 11 states that allow the growing and sale of marijuana for medical use. And recently many people are urging that part of Detroit’s abandoned real estate be turned into productive cropland. There is no more productive crop per acre than marijuana. Let’s take some of Detroit’s 70 square miles of unused land and grow a crop that will dramatically boost the economy.

Before you dismiss that as wild and fanciful, consider California. California is the number one state for the production of agricultural products and marijuana is now their most profitable crop. Agriculture is Michigan’s second highest income producing occupation- behind manufacturing. (It may now be our top income producing occupation.) While Michigan doesn’t have quite as favorable a climate as California for pot growing, the Detroit area can grow some decent marijuana, ask any drug enforcement officer.

Last years California medicinal marijuana crop brought in a cool $17 billion dollars to that states economy and that doesn’t count the tax revenue, (9.25 %), on retail sales of pot products. In California, the first state to legalize medical marijuana, hundreds of small retail establishments have opened selling various medical marijuana potions from dried buds to sweetened fruity drinks laced with pot. The shops have provided jobs and boosted the economy in the area around them.

In Detroit, those 70 square miles of abandoned land are equal to about 44,880 acres. That could grow a heck of a marijuana crop. And Detroit’s micro climate makes it warmer and gives it a longer growing season than most of the state. Of course all of that land isn’t available yet and some would need clearing of abandoned buildings. But with some encouragement, maybe favorable leases to pot farmers with the stipulation they remove abandoned buildings, that land could become far more productive than growing vegetables and the marijuana crop spawn a variety of related businesses.

If we added a tax on medical marijuana retail purchases, as California has, additional income could be made. If we went one step further and legalized and taxed marijuana like we tax liquor, (as California is actually considering), making marihuana available to all citizens over 21, we could take a big bite out of our budget deficit and develop a new industry in Michigan that could employ thousands of people.

If Detroit promoted itself as a marihuana town, with sweeping fields of pretty pot plants to take photos of, and dozens of quaint little shops offering everything from baggies of buds to marijuana smoothies and brownies, it could bring in tourists from all over. We’d fill up those empty hotels and restaurants providing more jobs for Detroit area citizens.

Medical marijuana growing is legal; it’s a green industry that’s on the verge of a big upswing so why not capitalize on it? Detroit has casinos, nightclubs, museums and theatres for tourists to visit when they are here to buy pot in a legal and dignified manner.

Let’s see sweeping green fields and small clean shops to process marijuana and cute little storefronts selling marijuana products rather than drug dealers selling more potent drugs out of abandoned houses and hookers doing business in overgrown lots in Detroit. And maybe a few medical marijuana smoothies could help Detroit city council persons work together in peace and love to achieve better things for Detroit.