Stumbled across a stat about Detroit vacant land that threw me off

I was digging through city records last week for a potential development deal and found out the city owns over 40,000 vacant parcels. That number is a lot higher than I thought given all the demolitions they've done since 2014. Has anyone else run into hidden lots that make you rethink what's available?

3 comments

3 Comments

bennett.mason16d ago

Whoa, hold up. I actually know a guy who bought one of those lots thinking he'd flip it quick for a tiny house project. Turns out the soil was so bad from old industrial runoff, he spent more on testing than the land itself. He ended up just letting it sit there and now it's full of these weird wildflowers nobody can identify. The city still sends him tax bills though, go figure.

diana_black16d ago

Those lots are probably worthless anyway. Detroit needs fewer buildings, not more.

abbyg6016d ago

wait soil testing? that sounds insane. i thought you could just throw up a garden box or something on those lots. guess not.