Tuesday, Debtember 14, 2004
As if …
We're looking around for a new place to live and since today was a relatively slow day at the office, I decided to poke around the Detroit area just to see how economically depressed it was. I grew up in the area and it was more curiousity than a real desire to live there that made me poke around the Realtor.com site (especially since it seems half the city seems abandoned).
City: Detoit, 3 or more bedrooms, single family homes, no rental units, show me what you got.
A 2,522 square foot home, 4 bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms, for $2,000.
In Grosse Pointe.
Grosse Pointe, which is the South Hamptons of the Detroit area.
I had to double check to make sure I had not selected rental units.
I didn't.
So I'm looking at a 2,522 square foot home, in Grosse Pointe, for $2,000. An “estimated” $9 per month, according to the Realtor.com site.
I knew Detroit was an economically depressed area, but I didn't expect it to be that economically depressed.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the next listing was for a seven thousand square foot home for $2,500. Sure, the taxes for this house run an approximated $8,000 a year, but hey, that's less than $700 per month, which is almost half of what we pay to live here in the Facility in the Middle of Nowhere.
Needless to say, I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around this. The realtor must have dropped a few zeros when listing the price. Must have!
I then started poking around the listing for the cheaper, 2,522 square foot home when I found the punch line: it's a lease! It's probably $2,000 per month to live in the house, not $2,000 and here's the title.
Okay, that's a bit more reasonable then.
At least I can stop thinking about the house now …
