The queen of soul's Detroit mansion sells for a song..

[mikey3000]

There is no such thing as a house having a universal value. $300,000 may be a song in a steep market, but it may be top dollar for that neighborhood in Detroit.

It's a bit tedious to hear folks from expensive markets cluck their tongues at less wealthy markets. It's not a song where I live and incomes here aren't what they are in the urban centers of the coasts.

Ms. Franklin may have bought the home in the heyday of her career and that neighborhood, yet they both may have declined since then. The landscape is certainly a sign that there hasn't been money spent lately on the place.

Here is the pic from the link in the OP:

Additional photos from another site:

Nothing tedious about it. A house is just a pile of material with little value. It is the land and the location that determines value, the community. Fluctuating Property values reflect a changing community and really is an observation on the community. For such a place with such a past to sell for so little, compared to what it was years ago, shows the true decline of a once great city. That is the shame.

 

[Thad1527]

But apparently the house is outside the city, in Bloomfield Township. A public high school student living there would go to Ferndale High School. Ferndale is considered a LGBT-friendly suburb.

Detroit mystified and amazed me when I visited last spring. A city reinventing itself, with lots of new construction...and so much neighborhood devastation. A new streetcar line, passing a fabulous new sports arena and going north to the New Center area...formerly GM headquarters but now just beginning redevelopment, not yet attractive. Surprisingly friendly people, good transit, three world-class casinos...and I didn't get to the east side, which I heard was just gone.

 

[gsdx]

Nothing tedious about it. A house is just a pile of material with little value. It is the land and the location that determines value, the community. Fluctuating Property values reflect a changing community and really is an observation on the community. For such a place with such a past to sell for so little, compared to what it was years ago, shows the true decline of a once great city. That is the shame.

You forget (as has been said here) that the house was abandoned for a decade. The historic or personal past has nothing to do with it's value if the house itself isn't worth it. It could cost the buyers hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring it back to its former glory.

You should look up the word 'entropy'.

 

[Vannie]

I like the house.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Nothing tedious about it.

Yes, it is tedious. We who don't live in the hotspots of society, of business, of the coasts or mountains, are frequently subjected to the faux shock of those who live in expensive markets. They go through withdrawal if not able to shop at a Whole Foods or other upmarket grocer. They act like normal incomes are trailer trash and the values or costs in middle America are some quaint throwbacks to Mayberry.

It's insulting. It's tedious to endure. It's too common.

 

[mikey3000]

You forget (as has been said here) that the house was abandoned for a decade. The historic or personal past has nothing to do with it's value if the house itself isn't worth it. It could cost the buyers hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring it back to its former glory.

You should look up the word 'entropy'.

The house was vacant, not abandoned. She still owned it. And the history of a house has everything to do with its value. Most savvy real estate investors know that. Look it up.

 

[johaninsc]

Yes, it is tedious. We who don't live in the hotspots of society, of business, of the coasts or mountains, are frequently subjected to the faux shock of those who live in expensive markets. They go through withdrawal if not able to shop at a Whole Foods or other upmarket grocer. They act like normal incomes are trailer trash and the values or costs in middle America are some quaint throwbacks to Mayberry.

It's insulting. It's tedious to endure. It's too common.

down here there's a term for those types of people...


Damned Yankees

 

[gsdx]

The house was vacant, not abandoned. She still owned it. And the history of a house has everything to do with its value. Most savvy real estate investors know that. Look it up.

And you should look up the Detroit housing market: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sa...638,-82.750397,41.943148,-84.50821_rect/8_zm/

 

[Alistair]

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Obviously no one else thought it was worth any more.

 

[unloadonme]

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Obviously no one else thought it was worth any more.

That's the definition of Open Market Value.

 

[NotHardUp1]

It is comical that the Zillow site prices it at $467k even as it obviously sold for less than 3/4 of that. It uses a formula, but the sale price is the actual value. And, as many a home owner will tell you, the sale price was often higher than the property ultimately proved to be worth.

 

[mikey3000]

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Obviously no one else thought it was worth any more.

Redlining had lots to do do with what happened in Detroit. Sad but true. There is very little left to the open market these days, especially when market forces can and are manipulated on a daily basis.

 

[Alistair]

It is comical that the Zillow site prices it at $467k even as it obviously sold for less than 3/4 of that. It uses a formula, but the sale price is the actual value. And, as many a home owner will tell you, the sale price was often higher than the property ultimately proved to be worth.

I wonder if Zillow goes by property tax values. I know mine is estimated about 20k more than what I could sell it for.

 

[NotHardUp1]

My home purchase was so hosed up on Zillow that they somehow recorded it as $12,500.

I have no idea whether there was some fraud with the sale and declaring loss, or just a typo, or the realtor screwing up something that fed Zillow. It sold for $235,000, so a little more than $12,500.