I encourage you to explore the difference between property taxes within the Detroit metropolis and in rural Michigan. Whether the back taxes have been forgiven

I encourage you to explore the difference between property taxes within the Detroit metropolis and in rural Michigan. Whether the back taxes have been forgiven or not does not obviate the future tax bills to the new owner. The $50000 bill is the average code to bring buildings up to code. You are correct that this would not apply for side lots. But people can and have purchased houses for "$50" that included a ~$50000 obligation, for use as low-income rental properties. Such houses can be made profitable by leaning heavily on the federal Section 8 voucher program. And that's why those properties sell. As for lead contamination in urban soil... http://modernfarmer.com/2014/07/lead-urban-gardens/ http://modernfarmer.com/2014/07/lead-urban-gardens/ https://soils.org/discover-soils/soils-in-the-city/soil-contaminants/lead https://soils.org/discover-soils/soils-in-the-city/soil-cont... Urban gardening only makes sense for the most lucrative of cash crops, and those intended for consumption by rich humans. You could certainly feed yourself and your family with a well-managed plot, but you're going to have some trouble selling to anyone else, unless you serve an incredibly specific niche and have some loyal friends in the restaurant industry. The business simply doesn't scale. After the restaurant buys all it needs, you're back to the farmer's market, where even the top-shelf local CSA group can match your quality and your price, at 100 times your volume. Your only advantage is that you can deliver fragile-but-unbruised produce by hand with a bicycle fifteen minutes after harvest, rather than after an hour on a delivery truck. But in practice, hardly anyone needs that enough to pay the extra cost for it. The guy growing fingerling potatoes on a 10 acre plot just past the suburbs is going to pay off their loan and then enjoy the profits, as the urban gardener works their ass off barely doing better than break-even.