Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Flint versus Saginaw

Suddenly, Flint real estate prices seem insanely high...compared to Saginaw.

Roberto Acosta of The Saginaw News reports:

"The Saginaw home that hit the housing market at a cut-rate price sold for less than the price of a McDonald's value meal.

"The abandoned home on 1606 Perkins received eight bids on eBay.com and sold for $1.75 Wednesday evening."

"The high bidder was 30-year-old Joanne Smith, of Chicago, Ill.

"'I am going to try and sell it,' she said of the home. 'I don't have any plans to move to Saginaw. I don't have any plans of moving from (Chicago).'"

Thanks to Max for passing this along.



7 comments:

  1. These people are like vultures.

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  2. Hasn't anyone read the news lately? Flipping houses isn't lucrative anymore... then again, $1.75... still, anyone wanna buy a bridge?

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  3. Amazing - I really CAN afford a house...

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  4. I heard about this'un on some random right wing radio show this morn. The uninformed host suggested you could fix'er up and sell it for $30,000. Dude has never been to Sagnasty. These homes hold negative value.

    I suppose they are like vultures if vultures preyed on years deceased carcasses that held absolutely no value. I dunno. Scavengers is more like it... or maybe collectors of useless things with no resale value. I'm sure there are people out there who collect Parade Magazine, hamburger wrappers, cigarette butts, and other assorted ephemera. Why not add Saginaw homes to the list.

    Having said that I always liked the fact that there wasn't really much of a Saginaw-Flint rivalry outside of the Generals/Gears. Sag is like Flint's ugly little sister. I love it.

    If anybody is ever up for a tour of mid-sized rust belt towns lemme know. Muskegon, Toledo, Port Huron, Battle Creek, Lima, Danville, and Fort Wayne sound like a good time to me.

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  5. grumkin and wurstside, exactly what I was thinking. What do you flip a house that sells for $1.75. Would $10 be considered an amazing return on your investment?

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  6. As I said to my friend from Charleston who blogged about this:

    "First off, I saw the article about the lady who bought the house in Saginaw. People like her are not helping cities like Saginaw or Flint at all. Instead of letting those houses go to authorities who can deal with them appropriately, who will either rehab it or demolish it - they fall into people who have no intention whatsoever to take care of these houses - thus, in turn, perpetuating the problems these cities are having with abandoned houses and lowered house values. It inflames me how narrow-sighted they are. Doesn't she think if it was SUCH a great deal, SOMEONE would have bought it at $10 bucks? Chances are, this house needs to be demo'd - and now that it's in her hands, instead of the appropriate organizations - it's going to sit there, as a danger and an eyesore to it's community. it absolutely inflames me. Way to go Chicago-girl.

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  7. Hey Brad and Becky, authorities like the City o' Flint and the Land Bank are sitting on hundreds of dilapadated pits. Essentially, Joanne just bought someone a tallboy of Steel Reserve, which is more than I can say for Ex-Con Don and Danny Boy Kildee. In the avalanche of decay that has been occuring for the last 25-30 years, a misinformed speculator like Joanne is a drop in the bucket. Let her buy it, pay the back taxes (so some corrupt city official can line their pockets), sit back and watch it turn into cinders on Devil's Night.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.