Clark Raitz

Rising Foreclosed and Bankruptcy Homes for Sale Led to Empty Land

Bankruptcy homes for sale and foreclosures have led to empty houses and unused land in Detroit. This has also led to more real estate becoming taxpayer-owned. By ForeclosureDataBank.com

The huge number of foreclosed and bankruptcy homes for sale in Detroit, Michigan, has led to a lot of vacant and abandoned residential properties and land in the city. This, in turn, has led to more pieces of real estate falling into the city's control and becoming taxpayer-owned. According to local reports, taxpayers in Detroit own the biggest percentage of land in the metro area.

As the number of properties falling under Detroit foreclosure listings increases, the population of the city, in turn, decreases. Demographic data for the city showed that since 1950, Detroit's population has gone down by almost 50%, with current tally estimated at around 900,000. Because of lack of residents, around 39,000 pieces of land have reportedly fallen into the control of the city, making the taxpayer the biggest single landowner in the whole area.

Foreclosures in Michigan have also led to more than 10,000 parcels of real estate falling into federal ownership, which means that about 12% of total land in Detroit is public-owned. Local officials estimate that Detroit has the biggest land owned by taxpayers than any other metro area in the U.S. The problem is, these lands do not generate taxes and actually require money for maintenance.

Majority of the unused lands have become blighted over the years, that is why Mayor Dave Bing has turned his sight on these pieces of real estate as potential pieces for the Detroit Works Project puzzle. The Project is an initiative meant to reshape the metro area, which has suffered from huge amount of foreclosed and bankruptcy homes for sale and unused land.

Real estate experts have stated that the publicly owned real estate can be used to build neighborhoods. Local officials are reportedly planning to ask residents living in under-populated communities and neighborhoods with huge number of properties under free listings of foreclosed homes for sale to relocate to certain designated areas.

This, officials have stated, will reduce the need for services in areas that have very few people living in them. The effort is part of a city-wide project geared towards finding a use for blighted parcels of land and neighborhoods overcome with abandoned properties due to the huge supplies of foreclosed and bankruptcy homes for sale.

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