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Comment by seanmccann | Hacker News Reader

The value of one single house is basically negative because of the bad neighborhood, bad surrounding homes, high crime, etc. By buying a larger number of contiguous homes, you can greatly reduce those problems. Sounds like a fantastic idea.

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There is some contiguousness but they are mostly spread all over the city. Take a look at the red properties on this map (zoomable):

https://whydontweownthis.com/2014/mi/wayne/detroit#15/42.347...

"but they are mostly spread all over the city"

6000 homes spread out also means you can also create a mini company town by essentially luring people (for a new company) to the city and giving them a choice of different properties, renovated and ready to go with efficiencies gained by having so many to deal with. (Similar to when, say, Levittown was built (all in one area of course but same concept with construction).

Many if not most of the houses are beyond renovtion. A fair amount probably have fire damage (arson in Detroit is legendary). Sitting for years with broken windows, holes in the roof, etc. leaves them rotted shells

The idea would be to bulldoze them and then just sit on the land until you need it for some reason. Carrying costs are obviously much lower that way you can't vandalize a lot (although you can dump on it of course..)

From what I remember, this is exactly what Detroit is trying to avoid. They have these auctions with the expectation that they will be lived in either by the owner or a lessee.

This was my idea as well. I also wondered if the owner of the land would attempt to join adjacent lots to create larger plots of land - which could then be drawn together further.

I'm not a city planner and am not very well versed in municipal zoning laws in Detroit so I wonder if its even a possibility.

I seriously doubt that's what's going on here. You can't really approach gentrification like that. You'd quickly run into issues with the local government and regulations.

My guess is that this is speculative property investment, likely as part of a private REIT/hedge fund. I bet the buyers plan to turn around and sell these off in small lots (usually 10 - 100 at a time) for a small profit.

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