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Detroit's Big Comeback: Out of Bankruptcy, a Rebirth
- jlj 8y agoI passed on a consulting opportunity to move the city's bond finances from paper and spreadsheets to an ERP system back in 2008. At that point it sounded like no one really knew how good or bad things were financially for the city. I took an easy corporate job instead. Missed a great learning opportunity a few years out of college and wish I would have gone for it. Happy to see them turn around.
- echelon 8y agoHow's the real estate in Detroit? Is it too late to invest in good property for cheap?
- lotsofpulp 8y agoWe’ve been sitting on zero and near zero percent interest rates for 10 years. The only reason any asset would be cheap at this point is all the other buyers attributed it with a decent amount of risk.
- missingcolours 8y agoExpensive downtown and cheap in the neighborhoods, so no, but it's far less clear to me that the neighborhoods will rebound in the way that the downtown area has (nearly all of Detroit's non-gentrified areas are overwhelmingly black, and across the midwest predominantly black neighborhoods have proven quite resilient to gentrification, for better or worse).
- blihp 8y agoWas downtown ever cheap during the downturn? I only remember hearing about fire-sale prices in the neighborhoods... which were already quite low before '08.
- colordrops 8y agoIt's seemed to me that gentry is a code word for white and diversity is a code word for black.
- subpixel 8y agoA rebound in not necessary for a real estate opportunity to exist. Even poor non-white people pay rent and there are mountains of money to be made in rental portfolios where you would not like to visit, much less live. But it’s by no means easy money - it’s a super competitive market.
- goodcanadian 8y agoThere is plenty of cheap property; it is debatable whether any of it is "good."
- tjr225 8y agoThis is the essence of land in the Midwest. You do get what you pay for, there's no magic to it.
- justtopost 8y agoEquating a blighted Detroit to the entire midwest is a bit asinine. Finding no magic outside a coastal bubble might be indicitave of a deeper sentiment you are not airing.
- tjr225 8y agoI meant that there was no magic to lower cost of property in the Midwest, not that there was no magic to be found there.
- goodcanadian 8y agoI think you read something into my comment that I did not intend. My comment was specifically about the rundown properties in Detroit that can be had for a song. They are in such a state, however, that you would have to put in tens of thousands of dollars, at least, to make them livable.
- tjr225 8y agoThere are properties all over the midwest that can be had for a song - run down, in Detroit or not. My sister in law just bought a nice house for 70k in Kalamazoo. That wouldn't buy you a house boat in Seattle. My point is that if you want to be surrounded by mountains, forests, ocean, high paying jobs, and culture, of course it is going to cost more than the Midwest.
- cenal 8y agoThe Midwest has a plethora of good opportunities for investors. It’s not overpriced like most of the coasts. Couple that with qualified opportunity zones and things will be heating up this year. Starting a fund soon with someone who has made millions in real estate within the Midwest. We intend to help others profit in these markets. Fund isn’t formed yet, we are not soliciting for investors yet. If you want more info feel free to check http://www.activatedcapital.com http://www.activatedcapital.com for updates.
- StreamBright 8y agoWhat is the definition of over priced? Are you talking about some actual index here or just thinking in non-quantifiable terms?
- lotsofpulp 8y agoOverpriced would mean in comparison to the price of another identical good at the same point in time, but since that is hard to find in real estate, I've always interpreted it to mean that the return on investment will be lower over a certain period of time for an overpriced property compared to another, either in dollar amounts and/or quality of life terms in case you're living in it.
- erikpukinskis 8y agoThe kind of investing you are doin strikes me as immoral. Generates economic value for you while slowing the overall economy down. It’s the land version of human trafficking. You treat land like a prostitute.
- dang 8y agoPersonal attacks will get you banned here. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
- rmason 8y agoWhile there is no longer as big an opportunity as there was if you bought in 2008-09 people are still doing well. https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2018/12/27/detroit-real-estate-condos-sale/2347989002/ https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2018/12/27/detroi... Very hard to do anything downtown anymore. Or in Corktown (west of downtown) where Ford is remodeling the old train station for their research headquarters. Maybe in Mid-town and definitely in New Center. An area just beginning to gentrify is East Village. Here's a project an entrepreneur has launched in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood which is further east of there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bapcgs1v62Q&t=4s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bapcgs1v62Q&t=4s Then there's the BMW mechanic and his wife who created a new career for themselves. When the banks wouldn't lend to him his neighbors were willing to do so! This is in the New Center area. https://www.freep.com/story/money/real-estate/2018/04/14/virginia-park-historic-district-detroit-neighborhood/393230002/ https://www.freep.com/story/money/real-estate/2018/04/14/vir...
- chiph 8y agoIf you do, make sure you check for tax liens before buying.
- leesec 8y agoIt's somewhat been picked over. If you're looking to renovate tho there is still a lot to choose from. GF recently bought a house for 45k which will need 40k in renovation probably. But recently a house sold down the street for 150k so there is still money to be made.
- kdot 8y agoNew Center, Woodbridge, and North End is where I'm currently investing. Property no where as cheap as 10 years ago but you still see stories like this: https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2018/12/27/detroit-real-estate-condos-sale/2347989002/ https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2018/12/27/detroi...
- hamilyon2 8y agoIf only too-big-to-fail banks declared bankruptcy back then.
- roymurdock 8y agoThen what, Detroit wouldn’t exist, instead we have a zombie city slowly dying and giving people the chance and time to escape at least.
- pram 8y agoDowntown Detroit is kind of starting to seem like a Potemkin village. A lot of these “comeback” articles focus primarily on the development in a tiny portion of the city that honestly never declined that much to begin with, in comparison to everything else. Crime and poverty are still insanely high. The school system is a tragic disaster. The majority of the urban area is still abandoned and blighted. It’s really not a place to raise a family, unless you intentionally live separated from all the disfunction (private school etc) and then what’s the point?
- dingdingdang 8y agoTotally agree, although hype can at times help bring the real thing in that it raises expectations above the bar they are currently at. Side-note: it's "dysfunction"
- anoncoward111 8y agoAre the emergency services still really slow and the property taxes reasonably high? Because if so.... Not much of a comeback. Would be like comparing Greenpoint to Canarsie
- dataminded 8y agoYes and yes. My last two attempts to call 911 failed because nobody would pick up. My alarm company was on hold to get to the police department for like 15+ minutes. Taxes are insane compared to what I would pay in a suburb that provided basic services and decent schools. I live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Detroit but will likely leave it for the burbs in the next year. Detroit just isn’t affordable for a young family.
- anoncoward111 8y agoI wish you godspeed. I live in a 92% black, high tax neighborbood on Long Island, but at least the police answer the phone and crime is at reasonable levels!!
- 8y ago
- Tsubasachan 8y agoA comeback implies that Detroit is just as relevant as it used to be. But its population and economy is much smaller than it was during the 50s?
- nothingnewhere 8y agoDetroit New Year Gunfire 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3yo7tX7c_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3yo7tX7c_k
- based2 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit:_Become_Human https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit:_Become_Human
- captainperl 8y agoBeing from the Detroit area, I find many of the comments here naive as one can't compare Detroit to an average urban city. To understand what Detroit is like, watch a film like "Escape from New York" or a WW2 bombing documentary. There are areas with no police or fire forces. Also, the soil around mfg. plants (and downwind) have metal contamination. The air quality used to be worse than anything in China today, with choking curtains of black and red soot and oxides which precipitated into the soil. So do your homework, get your firearm certifications and spend some time there before any relocation or investment. It is a great location if you want cheap industrial space or your own truck marshalling yard (true story) and you don't need city services like elementary schools. Check out "Detroit Steel" to see more: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6403968/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6403968/
- satsuma 8y agoa lot of detroit's problems also stems from the existence of grand rapids. i'd imagine if a company wanted a michigan office detroit wouldn't be the first on the list despite being the bigger city.
- dbmk 8y agoThe winters are still horrible, and Americans are somewhat less tolerant of that than they once were. It would take a small miracle to make Detroit into what it used to be in 1914-1960.
- ghaff 8y agoI don't necessarily disagree with your broader point but what makes you think Americans are less tolerant of winter than they once were? Cities like NYC and Boston/Cambridge seem to be doing just fine.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoI think it's safe to assume most people don't prefer to live in places with freezing temperatures, risk of pipes bursting, salt corroding your vehicles, roads with potholes, etc. Only reason I can think of would be if the place had good skiing/snowboarding/snow activities, but you need decent mountains and snowfall for that. Edit: NYC/Boston are outliers that have other exceptional offerings, especially related to economic opportunities. There is also inertia of being a place where people settled in first and set down roots, but I imagine most people would consider the weather of the upper midwest and upper PA/NY regions to be a negative.
- endorphone 8y ago>I think it's safe to assume most people don't prefer to live in places with freezing temperatures How is this "safe to assume"? Given the history of the world, and migration that is overwhelmingly to places that have seasonal freezing temperatures, this seems comically ill conceived. I love winter, even though I don't partake of winter sports. I love cooler temperatures. It's a lot easier being comfortable when it's cold than when it's hot. The number of pests, diseases, and perils are just so far fewer. I'm not going to say something as asinine as "people don't prefer to live in places without winters" because I know other people have different tastes, but an enormous number of us seem to rather like cold weather.
- 8y ago
- fredgrott 8y agoa question....we are forgetting history... I live close to a city that sprang up because Gary Indiana got its first black mayor in the 1970s is Merrillville Indiana had a large group of white flight from Gary to Merrillville How deep was the white flight from Detroit's impact on the future lived now?
- atomic77 8y agoThis is a semi-serious suggestion as I am just a techie without enough background in the legal and political side of things, but it has always struck me that cities like Detroit and Buffalo struggle while they border the area that is the economic engine of Canada. Could something along the lines of the schengen agreement be feasible between Canada and US border regions, making it easier for people and capital to flow between them? Not hard to imagine someone in Toronto trying their luck to start something up in Buffalo or Detroit where their costs would be a fraction of that in Toronto, but still allow them to remain close to home. People from those border cities that want to find better work in Toronto could do so more easily rather than having to move further away within the US. It would seem like a win-win for both sides.
- gammateam 8y ago> Could something along the lines of the schengen agreement be feasible between Canada and US border regions, making it easier for people and capital to flow between them? Of course it could, even if states like California left the union similar cooperation can be formed Critics never seem to imagine that
- atomic77 8y agoWhat I was thinking of is something along the lines of the agreements that some European countries have with each other, where residents that live within a certain distance of the border are treated somewhat differently. Or the special economic zones that exist in some Asian countries.