...population would be growing faster if we hadn’t demolished so much of our housing supply.

Relatedly, the US Census just reported another increase in Detroit population, and also revised up the prior year's population increase. Good news, but this is a case study in "things happening in spite of something, not because of it"...

www.detroitnews.com/story/news/l...

So, one new-build single family unit for the cost of what could have been three rehabbed single family homes. And for your trouble you'll be gifted with a property tax bill around $10k - $15k / year on that new build.

The City -- seemingly without appreciating what they're saying -- says as much these days:
"An improving housing market has led to more homes that would have been demolished in years past making the cut for sale."
www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/...

Study from the City's housing dept estimates new build single family home costs at ~$450k/unit. How many of the 30,000 homes Detroit demolished since 2013 were torn down b/c they would have cost $100k-$150k to rehab and the City's general sense was just "that'll never happen"?

t.co/mlw6mF3K7d

Yup, it's lucky for us that all of this happened long ago.

Today, Detroit is much more resilient to economic upheaval than it has been in decades. A new batch of mayoral candidates have actual visions for the city, and are not clearly striving for profile with unclear motivations for office beyond that.

Development was seen as a positive force and, after the pandemic, bus service and greater neighborhood-downtown connection meant that downtown didn't turn into a ghost town during the day.

Concerns about gentrification downtown, as a result, were rare and correctly ignored. Taxes on entertainment raised revenue for the city.

Neighborhoods were secured in their housing, speculators were held at bay due to our land value tax regime, and tax foreclosure was prevented thanks to the simple administration of property tax exemptions for homeowners in poverty.

...for public space, infrastructure, new housing development, and investment afforded by the Detroit Land Bank Authority being the 2nd largest land owner in the United States after the federal government (in terms of raw numbers of parcels of land owned).

We recognized and preserved "natural resources" like abundant cheap housing and did not wantonly sell-off the more than 100,000 city-owned vacant residential lots. We understood the unique opportunity...

Years ago we acknowledged the single-point-of-failure fragility of the local economy and ended embarrassing land deals with car companies.

Organized by Detroitography. Check it out:

t.co/skJRR8CXbu

Been interested in Muscogee County, GA -- and Columbus in particular -- because I've noticed a lot of recent corporate acquisition of homes there. Right next to Fort Moore (formerly Benning), so maybe not surprising that would be seen as fertile ground for acquiring chunks of homes to rent out.