Tasteful Friends: Care to move to Detroit

When I saw the price I said "oh my God' out loud.

Nice house. That price would be cheap — for DC.

I don’t care for some of their painting or furnishing choices, but overall it’s well done.

Very nice.

Its cute and elegantly small however just how small is it? I would need normal photos not what we see here. Seems like small rooms abound and 2nd floors, LOW ceilings. Its a nice size for a single person or couple, however.

I like it, but President Trump said Detroit is full of black people who want to kill us.

R5, I suggest fake prez dump take up residence in Detroit. His ridiculous hair makes for a nice target.

Incredible value... even though small, if this were in Hancock Park in LA it'd be for 2 mil.

The backyards are curious. Is it a Detroit thing, why are there no fences between all the back yards. There are garages so it's not common land. It'd be weird to walk out to your back yard and have no divider. Good fences make good neighbors.

R7 It's so burglars can have an easier time coming and going. City ordinance 8947.

The draperies in the living room are atrocious - look like they are from Tuesday Morning. I am not impressed - these type of houses are a dime a dozen in fading neighborhoods in the East.

The same house in the same condition would have gone for maybe $100,000 five years or so ago. Now you can't even find a junky fixer-upper for less than $100–$150K.

I bet it is hunted.

It, and 1925 Longfellow (one street over) are the two most expensive homes for sale in that part of the Boston Edison neighborhood west of the John Lodge (freeway.) Median home price in the neighborhood is less than half that: $163,000.

I like it well enough for what it is, but having an expensive (relatively speaking) home in a middling neighborhood in a dicey city wouldn't be my first choice. OTOH, about a mile from Henry Ford Hospital, a big employer in the area.

I'd much rather live in Detroit than Mississippi or Missouri!

These old houses need A LOT of work, this one's no exception. Fresh paint covers a lot of sins, but not for long

Detroit. 'Nuff said.

Check out the Crime Report for zip code 48207.

It's not bad at all. I couldn't see a floor plan posted on the site. It would be helpful to see the layout of the rooms.

Thanks for the reality check, r16

The threat of a home invasion can add a sense of adventure to a stale marriage, R18

The crime rate is appalling. I suppose you will have to have a lot of security and ... guns.

I wonder if it will ever have a renaisance?

R20 I noticed that the realtor's photo removed the Detroit Security patrol sign from the front yard that is visible on google maps.

I doubt it R21 but it might have a Renaissance.

The security issue makes this a no, just No.

At least there's a fire hydrant directly in front of the house on the parking strip. That could prove beneficial.

I dont think so, R21. Unless maybe most people who lived there now left.

If that's the "cherished neighborhood" one wants, this Tudor is available right down the block for $199K. (More likely much lower.) Re-do it as you want. The realtor says an independent rehab firm estimated $80K.

The iron grilles on the doors and windows say a lot about how safe the area is.

R21 The Renaissance may never come. The area seems risky and incongruous. Two blocks over this one goes for $39,000.

Burglar bars are a tell-tale sign. House has good bones but the interiors are beyond unfortunate.( However, you should look past interiors when buying). Pity the neighborhood is sliding.

I love the kitchen tiles! So on trend.

R27 Is that house starting to collapse into itself?

Do. not. move. to. Detroit.

There are some really fantastic homes in or areas around Detroit, especially in the historic districts.

One of my favorites (among many), the Kresge mansion.

More:

Yes, r31. Tasteful Friends, meet Pewabic Pottery tile. Made in Detroit, seen everywhere. They've been in business probably 100 years. Mysteriously very expensive. People love it.

The Detroit property prices are cheap but why would you buy there?

BTW watch out for de-funding and the ensuing Purge. Detroit will be Purged bigly.

R38

You've answered your own query.

Any place else in country such as parts of NY, CA, MA , FLA, etc... that Kresge mansion would go for far more than $3,260,000, and would sell. Problem for even historic property areas of Detroit there just isn't enough to attract persons who would spend that kind of money.

Many of these properties were developed by or for those whose wealth came from automobile or other industries long since largely vanished from Detroit. You may have some doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, or maybe tech money, but that still isn't enough to support a community of homes like shown above.

[quote] Many of these properties were developed by or for those whose wealth came from automobile or other industries long since largely vanished from Detroit. You may have some doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, or maybe tech money, but that still isn't enough to support a community of homes like shown above.

Too damn right, tasteful friends: flee!

I know tons of young people making +$200K in Detroit now. That's the reason these houses aren't $60k like they were six or seven years ago.

The coffee table looks like a coffin.

R42

Since you have the inside track, are any of these historic nice homes selling? If not is it because of price, size or something else?

They sell. Personally, I've never liked this Boston-Edison neighborhood. It's too spotty, even for me. There are neighborhoods with the same housing stock and same pricing that are way nicer. But absolutely, someone will buy this, and soon. Looks like this house sold for $140K in 2015.

I don’t care what anyone says. Houses like this are built to last. Well-maintained, it’ll be here long after the particle-board and Sheetrock McMansions.

The house is lovely. Not crazy about some of the details, like the paint colors and tiles, but I love older houses.

Jesus Christ. Spring for a professional photographer.

R4 you’re kidding right? I agree some of the rooms seem a tad small but it’s a 3200 square foot house with 5 bedrooms and 4 baths. Even if some of the bedrooms would benefit from combining into three, you’d consider that a home for one or two people? Most Americans have such a weird need for oversized homes.

Some living rooms just weren't meant for a 60 inch TV. Living rooms like this don't really lend themselves to modern living. If this living room were used for conversation and reading, it would be great. There's no good place to put a TV where you can sit 10 feet away from it.

When a room is this narrow, I much prefer the fireplace on a shorter wall. It gives you so many more layout options.

R49 That can be used as the drawing room or parlor .. lol!

The green room that appears to be on the top floor could probably be turned into a home theater.

Ooooh r50 I spaced on that. That's perfect.

I hope Detroit has a renaissance some day, I love those old homes. It would nice to see the city improve enough for those lovely old neighborhoods will again be safe.

The giant squares and rectangles of white molding on the walls really look awful. Like a frau Sunday afternoon project with a miter saw and it adds nothing. Rip that shit down!

I grew up there in the late 70s early 80s, and they talked about Renaissance back then. If it hasn’t happened by now I don’t know how much hope there is for the city. I really do hope they turn it around though.

When properties quintuple in value in less than a decade, something's going right.

Were these places former crack houses??

That's a terrific house. I've never been to Detroit and wish I had visited back when I lived in Chicago. I've met some incredibly nice people from in and around Detroit.

Detroit's a great city with a great past but a very uncertain future. Sadly, the tax base is so skewed downward by the number of abandoned properties for which the city receives no revenue. This means it can take hours for a response from the police, fire department, or an ambulance. This in turn reduces livability and housing prices.

A significant percentage of housing parcels in the city are vacant, with abandoned lots making up more than half of total residential lots in large portions of the city. With at least 70,000 abandoned buildings, 31,000 empty houses, and 90,000 vacant lots, Detroit has become notorious for its urban blight.

It's not hard, R55, for a property to quintuple in value when you can get it at a Detroit Land Bank auction for $2100.

Beautiful house on the outside, and its not bad inside, could easily be made very nice with some more period detail, lights, fitting, wallpaper, curtains etc

But not in Detroit. Hard pass, R16's post is a good reality check. I'd rather live somewhere safe in a one room shack

I remember a few years back reading about all the revitalization and new energy in Detroit and how many creative class types were settling there. Sounds like that has stalled quite a bit. There is a lot of love for that city from locals and former locals, so I am hopeful still.

[quote] Some living rooms just weren't meant for a 60 inch TV. Living rooms like this don't really lend themselves to modern living. If this living room were used for conversation and reading, it would be great. There's no good place to put a TV where you can sit 10 feet away from it.

Imagine that...conversation...reading! People actually engaged in mundane chit chat or witty repartee at one time? Or retreated to quiet solitude to expand their minds or stoke their imaginations with a good book!

You, sir -- R49, just underscored the decline and fall of western civilization!

Oh, I forgot to leave my calling card at R61.

[quote]People actually engaged in mundane chit chat or witty repartee at one time? Or retreated to quiet solitude to expand their minds or stoke their imaginations with a good book!

[bold]READING A BOOK?[/book]

[/bold]

In Cleveland, someone bought the house used for exteriors for A Christmas Story. They converted it to a museum and re did the interior to look exactly like the movie...except. It is in the worst neighborhood. Houses around it have plastic sheeting for windows, they look abandoned. The house where those three girls were kept in chains for years was like two blocks away.

Link at R58 should have shown some before and after pics for comparison. Lazy 'journalist'.

PBS had a great POV program several years ago (Flag Wars) about gentrification of an Columbus Ohio area.

Blacks would have rather continued living in a run down depressed neighborhood (with plenty of historic homes) rather than see whites (mostly gays) buying homes, fixing them up and moving in.

Never understood that mindset; you'd think from a homeowner prospective anything that increases your property values would be welcomed. But no... these people would rather live in their crumbling down historic homes with rest of area doing same.

IIRC this played out in parts of Detroit and elsewhere in USA, and still goes on.

More:

There appear to be scads of homes in Detroit (in the same zip code as OP's house) that are going for $1000/auction.

Who would pay that much to live in Detroit???😂

Are there even good paying jobs left in Detroit?

Detroit's heyday was not very long time wise. The place largely built up prior to WWI and through WWII as manufacturing in this country took off; by the 1970's onward as things began to change (for various reasons) employment and people left. Simply put Detroit was too spread out and poorly planned to navigate what came post 1980's...

Other issues didn't help; racial tensions, an eventually liberal/democrat local government that saw businesses/industry as cash cow to milk to fund any or all of their various progressive schemes.

[quote]Are there even good paying jobs left in Detroit?

I think their peak was based on the auto industry and manufacturing and I’m not even sure they still have any auto manufacturing plants there anymore.

R72 Besides employment, I would also like to know what schools the people that R42 imentions send their kids to. There seem to be blocks near OP's house where homes look OK, or have been restored, but then there are really bad pockets adjacent. Even if young couples go private with education, their kids would still reside in the neighborhood. Schools are big priority for couples buying real estate.

Depends on how you define "good" paying jobs...

Healthcare, tech, insurance and a few other sectors that pay good wages are growing. As another poster upthread stated people are pulling $200k or more, which is darn good money for Michigan.

As with nearly every other city in USA Detroit is betting heavily on luring or developing big tech sector. Ford has huge plans for that old RR station they bought in Corktown.

In short everyone knows manufacturing is never going to be what it once was in Michigan much less Detroit; so they've got to pivot to what will be the next big things in 21st century.

What has to happen (and already is to an extent) is also Detroit needs to shrink. Currently city has to pay for sewer, water and other services to far flung and now mostly desolate areas that likely never will come back. There has been movement to get remaining residents to sell or otherwise move them on so things can be made more compact. More of this needs to happen as Detroit will most surely never see the sort of population boom it had prior to 1950's.

Mittens Romney's childhood Detroit home, now razed.

Adjacent property next door is still standing however.

Known as the Van Dusen mansion, property sold back in 2014 for about $730k.

The house was built in 1922 for Charles Van Dusen, prez of Kmart's predecessor Kresge.

[quote] Ford has huge plans for that old RR station they bought in Corktown.

From the article:

[quote] Inside, much work is being done on the waiting room, which was modeled on a Roman bathhouse. About 22,000 square feet of Guastavino clay tiles covering three self-supporting arches are being repaired.

Ford should maybe run with that. Gay men might flock to the area and create some gayborhoods.

That damn train station gets all the attention. It's in a desolate area a couple of miles from downtown. IMHO The Guardian Building is the best building in Detroit. It's never fallen into disrepair.

Pewabic Pottery tile.

Ohhh sweety, sweety, darling! Palmer Woods!

Oh what it must have been like during that era's heyday. The parties, homes, events.....

You can't get work like that (or even in many cases the materials) today for love nor money.

I know I have seen photos of homes in another neighborhood, similar to Boston Edison but the homes and lots are bigger. Back in the day it was very much "mansion row."

Anyone know the street/neighborhood I am talking about? I don't think it's Boston edison.

Never mind! As I was typing R84 mentioned it - Palmer Woods.

R73 Detroit has also had the worst white flight of any rust belt city, and all those tax dollars went with those people.

Indian Village/West Village r85 ? It's much more colonial. Palmer Woods is very Tudor.

R88 I just remember seeing a clip on a show (CBS Sunday Morning, maybe?) about how someone bought a Palmer Woods house for a steal to restore it. Couldn't remember the neighborhood name!

They all seemed very big to me.

R87

Even the Romney family bolted for Bloomfield Hills.

Bloomfield Hills is NOT safe.

How's gay life in Detroit?

Grosse Pointe is a city of it's own, right?

Palmer Woods was not saved from white flight, in fact by middle to late 1960's as with Strivers Row in Harlem, what once built for or at least mostly white area fast became AA.

It was same story repeated in many areas of USA during 1960's and 1970's; first one, then two and more AA families moved into a street and in response whites quickly began leaving. At some point area tipped, and that was that. Some whites remained until they died, but after that event property was sold to whoever would pay, usually at that time minority since whites weren't interested (by and large) at that time moving into a mostly black street.

As things got really bad in Detroit, soon even blacks began fleeing Plamer Woods, hence all those homes abandoned, looted, and going otherwise to rack and ruin .

R93

Yes, it is; and don't let the sun set on your behind if you're not one of us......

Palmer Woods was never THAT bad. It's long been in transition but it's never just been abandoned like so many areas. In terms of Detroit city neighborhoods, it's fared the best.

More:

Grosse Pointe real estate:

Or maybe you prefer lake front property?

R66, there were before and after photos but you had to scroll way down to see them.

Great story. The young man who bought the house was pictured wearing a shirt saying "Black and Goald." He also got the house next door in another auction and is renovating it, too. He paid $1200 for it.

His mom's house, after the renovation.

Is Atlanta really the Detroit of the south?

Great house, R98.

There is no Detroit of the South. Atlanta would be the Columbus of the south.

Grosse Pointe Farms K-9 program.....

These people mean business!

R102

How do you mean?

OMG, I love it. Now if they'd please airlift it out of Detroit and put it somewhere nice.

There was an old HGTV or DIY show called American Rehab and they did a few different towns.

The Detroit house was interesting, the dude bought it for 5K when it was almost rotted out. His family had owned it.

R109 I remember that one ! he looked slightly Asian. They did a wonderful job,but I remember google street mapping and the surrounding area was blighted.

Wait, this is it sweety, this one I want in Grosse Point!

Perhaps Detroit will be the new hipster hotspot in the next few years with people wanting to leave the coasts.

Someone asked about Detroit schools...

Well obviously those who have options and means likely aren't sending their children to various public schools.

Happily here are plenty of good to excellent private options like Grosse Pointe Academy.

You're eight years too late r112.

Lacrosse!

I really liked Rehab Addict, an HGTV show set in Detroit. The star of the show, Nicole Curtis, did a great job bringing old wrecks back to life. She used salvaged pieces for most of the rehabs and the finished products had an authentic feel.

Even hipsters have to make a living, R112. Not everyone can work remotely. And if people are leaving the coasts, I don't think Detroit would be on their shortlist.

Detroit's bigger problem is that there isn't going to be any renaissance via tech if there are no schools: Wayne State ain't MIT or Cal Tech or Stanford. The public schools in the city are abysmal, so they can't feed the local colleges and the local colleges can't incubate tech startups.

I can't with Nicole Curtis though, she's a MAGA cunt.

Receipts, r118?

Big fan here.

I've never seen nor heard of that woman before, but she couldn't look more MAGA, R119.

A former Nicole thread here

and here

Ok, well take comfort in her being broke now. I wasn't aware of all that but I knew that her personal life is now a wreck.

I didn't know she was conservative. It's been a long time since I've seen her on HGTV, apparently she's been off the air since 2018. Looks like she made a mess of her life in recent years.

How shocking: Another "family values" conservative with a messed up personal life.

I don't like it: a quicky (and not charmingly so) rooflie, pencil thin modillions or rafter ends, an underscaled fat Palladian window and generally poorly proportioned and detailed fenestration, and that ugly grapevine cast iron. Inside it's off as well: the doorways and architectural features just fall where they may along the center hall, though the stair itself and the segmental arched ceiling are the best features of the house. Otherwise it's blocky and Lego-ish, and short on architectural progression or focal points.

Detroit was designed as series of communities clustered around a factory, then X blocks away another such node, each node having a posh bit and a hierarchy of management and working class housing. Unlike most cities, there are no large expanses of expensive housing, no "good side" of town, no large expanse of prosperity because it's all mixed up and you must drive through poverty to get to luxury - many times over. All an odd outgrowth of a one industry town with a handful of big employers around which subcities were built.

But the brick walls covered with close-clipped ivy would make a world of improvement.

I almost bought this place when it sold for $60K in 2014. Last August it sold again for $390K. I fucking loved it but I couldn't justify paying $1100/mo in condo fees.

R126 you’re quite much aren’t you

That foyer is fabulous ! I could so see myself sweeping down those stairs in some gorgeous chinese silk kimono .

R129, don't be mean. He's our beloved Detroit Architectural Detail and History Troll.

Detroit fixer-upper story. If he can make it, maybe Detroit can.

R128:. Very nice apartment, even with poor photos, and unfucked with and in great condition. I see why you loved it, but also why the upside-down ratio of property cost to co-op fees caused concern when it sold for $60k, though I might regret it as the one that got away.

R129: Maybe so.

R131: Thanks, but I was in Detroit only once, and for part of a day.

Renaissance High is the one good public school.

[quote]How shocking: Another "family values" conservative with a messed up personal life.

Frau bible [italic]Country Living,[/italic] of all media outlets, published an interview revealing that Nicole's own mother took out a restraining order against her.

R135 that was interesting and sad. I feel sorry for her after reading that

These Detroit houses are tempting. All over the Midwest you can get these kind of houses in down and out cities at a fraction of the price you’d pay on the coasts. The problem is that neighborhoods gentrify slowly if at all in the less desirable cities in the Midwest. You’ll just have a really nice house in the ghetto. Which can be fine, but it won’t be like buying in an up and coming neighborhood in NY, SF, Chicago, where Starbucks and gentrification is 5 years away.

I live in a really nice house in a midwest gay ghetto. I say it's like living in the country. If you want something, other than gas, McDonalds or KFC you have to get in the car and drive 15 minutes.

[quote] You’ll just have a really nice house in the ghetto.

Yeah, R137. I see where this Boston-Edison zip code (48206) shows 13,142 housing units with 4,510 - or over a third - vacant.

Of these vacant ones, over 56% are vacant for "other reasons" - which means they're not for rent or sale - which probably means they're just sitting there in all their dilapidated glory as they continue to fall apart.

Isn’t car and home insurance much more expensive in areas with more crime?

Good point r140. Detroit’s car insurance is insane. $600-800 per month! No one registers their car in Detroit if they can avoid it

[quote]Among the nation’s cities, those living in Detroit – ironically, nicknamed the Motor City – are charged the highest rates of any metro area in the nation at a staggering $5,464 per year. By contrast, drivers residing in Winston-Salem, NC pay the lowest rates at an average $846.

Forbes, 2019