Jan
8
Radically Cheap Homes
Filed Under Social Commentary | 1 Comment
So here is an interesting article, CNN Money – Radical Cheap Homes: $1,000 about homes for sale in depressed areas for as little as a few hundred dollars each. My question is, who is really buying these homes? The answer is probably developers who will invest some money in them, fix them up and sell them for a price that people who live in these areas can’t afford.
Here’s my suggestion – I’d like to see a community organization that buys these homes up and offers them to the people who actually already live in these depressed areas. Let’s face it, there are plenty of low income families living in Flint, Michigan who can’t afford even the $500 to buy one of these homes. So, lets buy the homes and allow people to “apply” to live in them. I think it’s fair that they simply take whatever rent they are paying for their apartment and pay that to live in these houses. The hope is that they move in, fix up the house and turn these run down neighborhoods back into the small, close knit communities that they once were. After 12 months of living in the house, someone from the community organization would inspect the place and if the family has made a noticeable improvement to the house or community in some way – they can have the deed to the house and land for free.
Seriously, some of these houses are selling for less than $1,000! What better investment can we make in our communities than helping people to live a better life? I’m damn sure that the last thing we need is a developer buying them all up to bulldoze and put up yet another condo community.
But that’s just me.
Comments
1 Comment so far
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor