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goobingdetroit:

By plane, coming up the Detroit River, you can always tell when you’ve crossed into Detroit.

The densely packed single family homes of Grosse Pointe Park abruptly give way to the largely abandoned and vacant neighborhood north of Mack Avenue and west of Alter Road.

The change from Detroit to Grosse Pointe is stark from one side of Alter to the other, and it’s reflected in real estate values. Homes you can throw a baseball between are separated by $100,000+ gulfs, as you can see in the current price distribution for properties on the market in the area. It’s not a large sample size, but the prices are indicative.

Undoubtedly, more sales actually happen on the Detroit side through the tax foreclosure auction. A few dozen homes in the neighborhood sold in 2014’s aucton, most for a couple thousand dollars at most.

On the Detroit side, the neighborhood shown here was slated for a massive development just a few years ago. Though new sidewalks were put in, and millions spent demolishing homes in preparation for construction, the quarter-billion dollar project collapsed in the face of the financial crisis. Read more and see fantastic historical and contemporary photos of the area at Detroiturbex.

Grosse Pointe Park is an interesting example of the kind of community legislators likely had in mind when they drafted Public Act 123, which established the contemporary tax foreclosure laws.

High home values and density in the Pointes contribute to an environment where punishing interest on unpaid taxes can in fact encourage home owners to catch up on their taxes, lest they lose their homes. And if they do lose their homes, the desirability of the neighborhood ensures properties will be purchased at auction at put back to productive use.

Indeed, that is what’s happened since the financial crisis in Grosse Pointe — anything that winds up at auction is purchased. Not so, of course, in Detroit.

(via goobingdetroit)

(via johnskylar)