By
Michael Zennie
00:04 GMT, 3 April 2012
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08:41 GMT, 3 April 2012
Willow Tufano, age 14, captured the country’s attention when she purchased a house for $12,000 and offered it for rent — becoming perhaps the country’s youngest landlord.
But real estate experts say there are thousands of other houses across the country selling for unbelievable bargain-basement prices, thanks to a glut of foreclosures and the mass of houses without buyers on the market.
The housing market meltdown means today there are at least 100 homes in each of the 10 largest housing markets in the country that are listed for $10,000 or less.
All yours for $10,000: This house at 18700 Lauder Street in Detroit, Michigan, is 1,362 square feet and offers three bedrooms and three bathrooms
An $8,500 bargain: This house at 2448 Blackwater Drive is just off Lake Catherine in Orlando, Florida
Rock bottom? Willow Tufano, 14, (left) and her $12,000 house in Florida exemplify the glut of super-cheap properties that are clogging the real estate market
Atlanta has 234 houses on sale for less than $10,000. The Baltimore market lists 207 and Chicago has 165, according to the National Association of Realtors.
In Detroit, Michigan, which has been hit hardest by both the recession and the housing crash, 2,300 homes can be bought for less than $10,000.
Abandoned, foreclosed houses have become such a scourge that city leaders are hoping to bulldoze whole blocks.
An the number of such homes are rising. In 22 of the top metro areas that Realtor.com analyses, there has been an increase in the past two years of super-cheap properties listed below $10,000.
Most of these properties are a result of lengthy bank foreclosures and sit on land that makes them literally worthless, Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move Inc., which operates Realtor.com, told MSNBC.com.
Buy it for $9,500: This house at 2513 Birds Nest Cactus Court in Las Vegas, Nevada, offers 1,678 square feet and three bedroom and three bathrooms. It was built in 2003, near the height of the housing bubble
Newly reduced to $10,000: This 1928 bungalow at 1577 Lakewood Avenue Southeast in Atlanta, Georgia, is sold as-is, but it offers 1,290 square feet and three bedrooms
Buy it from the bank for $7,900: This home at 18515 Winston Street in Detroit, Michigan, has 1,296 square feet and four bedrooms. Bank of America is trying to unload this foreclosure property
THE CHEAPEST HOUSES IN THE COUNTRY ARE IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN
In Detroit, Michigan, the housing crash and the recession have made thousands of homes practically worthless.
It has the lowest values for existing home sales in the country, by a long shot.
Here are the other cheap real estate markets, listed by average existing hoem sale price in 2011:
Detroit, Michigan — $53,800
Toledo, Ohio — $75,700
Lansing, Michigan — $77,500
Ocala, Florida — $80,900
South Bend, Indiana — $83,600
US average — $166,200, down from $173,100 in 2010
The bargain-basement properties can be a boon for the right investors.
Ben Yonge, the head of a real estate investment firm, bought a four-unit apartment building in Orlando for $25,000 recently. During the height of the housing bubble, he would have paid $120,000, MSNBC.com reported.
‘These are the types of deals you can come across. There are $19,000 condos in the heart of Orlando,’ Mr Yonge told the website.
‘We could probably count 10 to 15 listings under $10,000 in the Orlando area right now.’
But some of these homes will never regain their value in time to turn around a profit if they require too much renovation or aren’t attractive to buyers or renters.
Stick to high-density areas close to places where people work and shop, Berkowitz told MSNBC.com
In Detroit, these super-cheap houses are helping to depress the prices that existing homes can fetch on the open market.
The average existing home, one that’s not newly built, in the Motor City sells for $53,800 — by far the lowest price in the country. The national average is $166,200.
But theses house might also be a sign that the broken housing market is finally beginning to recover.
When reporters at NPR’s Planet Money discovered Willow Tufano and her $12,000 house, once worth $100,000, in a nice neighborhood in Florida, they speculated that her purchase could symbolize rock-bottom for real estate prices.
Sales of existing homes are up nine percent this year.
It’s just $10,000 if you can survive the neighborhood: The realtor, in the listing for 1822 Center Avenue in East Point, Georgia, warns ‘Use caution when viewing property!’
A condo for $7,900: A condo in this building at 2761 LB McLeod Road in Orlando, Florida, is bargain with two bedrooms and 992 square feet
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Most of these houses will have foundation problems as trees have been planted far too close.
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Typical ignorant comments by the “fearful consumer” masses. For your information, in its heyday, Detroit was one of the wealthiest cities in the world, known as the Paris of the Midwest for its gorgeous architecture, city life and culture. There are still tremendous amounts of wealth in the Detroit area and other parts of Michigan. Tremendous. And before you get all high and mighty making jabs about crime and bullet proof vests, just remember it can happen to any city, anywhere. Most people from Detroit still have a sense of pride in the city and a belief that it just might make the biggest comeback you’ve ever seen. We’re fighters and that’s the American way.
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the BANKERS caused this mess I dont know about the US but here in britain they are still getting millions in bonus payments
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YOU CAN BUY ALL OF DETROIT FOR A FEW THOUSAND DOLLARS………….AND GET A BULLETPROOF VEST THROWN IN!!!
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Housing market still a shambles. Our 1300 sq foot Cape Cod style home from the 1940s was just reassessed at $110,377 less than last year. We live 23 miles from downtown Manhattan in a usually desirable suburb of NYC. It’s disheartening to realize even if we could sell, we’d lose a good $200k. Times are tough, though both my husband and I work full time in decent paying professions. It’s impossible to get ahead- just playing catch up hard enough. It’s not like we bought some huge mega mansion either, it’s just the real estate market so glutted its impossible to recoup your losses. On the other hand? Great time to buy.
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There are good reasons these properties are so cheap. You will pay with a high crime rate and probably still have to pay several thousand dollars a year in property tax to boot. Not to mention the cost of repairing and maintaining an old money-pit of a house.
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Aaahhh, poor Americans didn’t like my comments just because I don’t like these homes and I would rather stay in my Lovely beautiful UK….. ahh! didums
– carole, cheltenham uk,
–Everyone believes the place where they live is the best place on earth, most people are wrong!
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yeah but do you want to live there. that is the question. do you value your life or valuables
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Who in the Hell would want to move to or buy a home in Detroit? Obama is going back there soon. Maybe he can help the housing market, like he did before ruining the US.
– the Real-Tour, USA, 3/4/2012 3:28
@Real0Tour…why would obama go there? uh…he previously resided in a city called chicago. In a state called illinois. I thought detroit was in a state called Michigan? Well Im bad with geography. ehhh…
there are deals in america, sadly these may not be them. the first pic looks decent, the vegas home looks decent (but i agree probable fire damage) and the atlanta home look okay too..
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Who in the Hell would want to move to or buy a home in Detroit? Obama is going back there soon. Maybe he can help the housing market, like he did before ruining the US.
– the Real-Tour, USA, 3/4/2012 3:28
@Real0Tour…why would obama go there? uh…he previously resided in a city called chicago. In a state called illinois. I thought detroit was in a state called Michigan? Well Im bad with geography. ehhh…
there are deals in america, sadly these may not be them. the first pic looks decent, the vegas home looks decent (but i agree probable fire damage) and the atlanta home look okay too..
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