Real Estate Deals in Detroit
Every time the real estate market turns, someone potentially benefits and someone potentially loses out. When property values soar, home owners worry about paying higher property taxes. When values worsen, the end never seems in sight. In the current downturn, the losers are clearly identified as those facing foreclosure or who-because of market, job and credit conditions-feel like they have nowhere else to turn but towards using their house as an ATM machine or selling at a deeply reduced price.
The good news-if you can call it that-is, there are some mighty good deals to be had these days, and one needs to look no further than yesterday's front page of The Free Press to see what we're referring to. See the picture of the house below-the one with all the arrows pointing toward it?
Here's a better picture:
If you had to guess how much this house is selling for-based just on the above image alone-what would you say? $750,000 to $1,000,000? After all, it has:
- 7 bedrooms
- 5 full bathrooms
- 2 half bathrooms
- Living room
- Dining room
- Family room
- Breakfast room
- Florida room / Sunroom
- In-law quarters
- Library
- Partially finished basement
All told, this mansion built in 1905 has over 7,000 square feet (7,187 to be exact), but because of current housing conditions, it is priced to move, and move quickly. Before we tell you the asking price, read the following clip from yesterday's The Free Press:
Struggling housing market has Detroit's gems slashing prices
January 19, 2008
BY ZACHARY GORCHOW
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERHow can you own a house worthy of a millionaire, at a price typical of your standard three-bedroom, two-bath bungalow?
It sounds too good to be true. But in fact, buyers can find scores of historic, large homes available for astonishing bargains - some under $200,000 - in beautiful Detroit neighborhoods, deals that real estate agents say haven't been this good in decades.
The listings are eye-popping, like the stunning six-bedroom, four-bath, 5,500-square-foot, 1923 colonial in the Boston-Edison neighborhood for $249,500 - about $45 a square foot. Or the five-bedroom, three-bath, 2,700-square-foot colonial in the University District for $149,900. If it's a Cape Cod you're eyeing, there's the seven-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath, 4,650-square-foot home in Indian Village for $314,999.
But what frustrates real estate agents and owners is the struggle to sell such historic gems - even at these prices. And some have slashed their asking prices by tens of thousands of dollars...
...The real estate market is sluggish everywhere in metro Detroit, and prices have plummeted.
But it's in Detroit where prices have dropped the most, said Ron Simpson, the outgoing president of the Detroit Association of Realtors... Buyers have long been able to get more house for their money in Detroit than most suburbs, but today's deals in the city are at "a whole new level," Simpson said. ...... In the West Village on the city's east side, when residents learn of someone interested in buying a house in Detroit, they recruit them to their neighborhood by taking them on a one-on-one tour and introducing them to the neighbors, said Bill Swanson, 33, a West Village resident who has conducted some of the tours. Four people have bought homes in the neighborhood in the last year thanks to this effort, Swanson said. "Once you meet people and realize it's a great neighborhood, it makes buying in the neighborhood really easy," he said.
Indian Village is another prized area in Detroit. There, a seven-bedroom, six-bath, 7,187-square-foot colonial is listed for $349,995. "A comparable house somewhere else would be millions," said Joy Santiago, the house's real estate agent. "It definitely should have gone by now. These are really good prices."
That's right... the 7,000+ square foot house referenced above-it's in the Indian Village section of Detroit-is priced at just $349,995! In many other markets, this historical gem would sell for around $800k to $1 million. Interested in learning more? Here a few additional shots, this time from the interior:
To learn more about this property or others like it, call Joy Santiago at 313-980-0400 or send an email to joy@joysantiago.com
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