Can one family's renovation help reclaim Detroit's abandoned neighborhoods?
In short: In a city where nearly one in five houses stood vacant in 2016, the Polk family set out to transform a distressed property in the Russell Woods area into a home.
The video follows the Polks as they navigate Detroit's vast landscape of abandoned properties, which included 52,947 vacant houses according to a 2016 report. Their chosen home, purchased through the Detroit Land Bank, arrived with significant issues like missing copper plumbing and roof damage—common ailments for houses abandoned during the housing market crash a decade ago.
The scale of the city's vacancy is underscored by the Detroit Land Bank's auction history, where the median price for 926 auctioned homes reached just $3,700.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Detroit. One House at a Time | Episode 2 | This Old House
- Also: www.pbs.org — This Old House | Ep. 2: Empty Houses | Detroit. One House at a Time | PBS
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