OT- Is Detroit really dying?
The Wall Street Journal recently ran one of the most creative stories I have seen in years. The journalist told the story of the history of a 5-bedroom home in Detroit, from the land purchase to its recent sale. It was built by one of the most influential man you have never heard of, Clarence Avery. Avery was on the Ford Motor Company team that conceived of implementing an assembly line for Ford's factory. He copied the idea from a hog-slaughtering operation. His home was a very nice home for the time. The journalist located his daughter, now age 91. She said that she always thought the home was the best home she ever lived in. As recently as 2005, the home sold for $250,000. It was purchased by a woman who was lent $200,000 to buy it. It was financed by a subprime loan. The asking price was $189,000. Where the other $61,000 went, the woman has no idea. She defaulted. The deteriorating house was bought by a Christian organization that is renovating it. The house sold for $10,000. [...] This is the sign of a dying city. This does not happen in a normal environment. Even with the mania created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in conjunction with Alan Greenspan's Federal Reserve, nothing like this has happened anywhere else.
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Even in Grosse Pointe one of the most wealthy areas in America, is abandoned, but you wouldn't realize it because the lawns are still kept up and the police patrol day and night. The houses are all empty though.Good Lord. No they're not. Are you quite sure you were in GP? I go back there all the time. I grew up there and my parents live there, and there's a very significant chance I move back there this year. The houses are not empty, the town is not abandoned, and yes, there are grocery stores - the Rustic Cabins is literally a stone's throw from one. The bar is empty because GP is one of the furthest places you'll ever see from a nightclub hotspot. The "city of Detroit" itself is doing very, very badly, but it's totally inaccurate and unfair to say the metropolis is dying.
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