December 14, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
Softening an international reputation as the home of urban ruin porn, the campaign to rid Detroit of blighted eyesores is at last showing results, with the city demolishing about 200 vacant houses a week, four times the level of a year or so ago.
The city believes it can sustain a rate of 200 demolitions a week. At that pace, it could soon be tearing down as many as […]
December 9, 2014 | The Detroit News
We want to applaud The Detroit News for shining a light on the problem of childhood asthma in Detroit in your recent article, “Health providers target Detroit’s child asthma woes.”) The tragedy of asthma is not only that it limits the lives of so many children, but that so much of that can be prevented.
December 7, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
LANSING — Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan assured state lawmakers today the city of Detroit doesn’t want to give real estate speculators a break on the property taxes and interest they owe but is deeply concerned about 20,000 owner-occupied homes in the city that face foreclosure in the coming year.
Of about 62,000 Detroit homes facing foreclosure next year, about 30,000 are vacant, and “I have pushed the treasurer to […]
December 5, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
The soggy, moldy, stinking cleanup after southeast Michigan’s disastrous summer rainstorm is all but over for countless metro Detroiters.
They lugged sopping junk to the curb, hired contractors and replaced ruined basement furnishings, electronics, drywall and carpeting after the Aug. 11 rains that had President Barack Obama declare the region a federal disaster area.
December 4, 2014 | The Detroit News
Six-year-old Micheal Washington has asthma, like more than 20,000 other Detroit kids.
His family lives in a brick bungalow built in 1924. As in many older houses, it’s prone to mold, dust and other allergens that can make him wheezy and short of breath.
December 1, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
A Dearborn Heights school district endangered students and staff by falsifying a report and covering up past asbestos contamination at two schools, according to explosive records filed with a federal lawsuit on Tuesday.
Officials at Dearborn Heights Schools District No. 7 acknowledged to the Free Press they made a mistake by using electric sanders on vinyl tiles that contained asbestos, but insisted this week there is no evidence asbestos […]
November 29, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
As state legislators reconvene next week for what’s likely to be a frenetic lame-duck session focused on road repairs, Michigan’s top officials are watching for action on a pair of bills to help tens of thousands of homeowners in metro Detroit avoid evictions.
The two bills languished for years in Lansing, but this fall, they have broad bipartisan support as leaders scramble to avoid a tax foreclosure crisis that […]
November 25, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
Home prices across metro Detroit are back to where they were in early 2008, although the pace of the rebound has started to slow, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price index released Tuesday.
The closely watched index showed prices rising 5% in September from a year earlier for the metro area defined as Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, St. Clair and Lapeer counties.
November 24, 2014 | The Detroit News
Detroit — Fannie Mae is giving Detroit 44 of its foreclosed houses, along with $15,000 apiece for 18 of the properties that need to be demolished.
The deal with the Detroit Land Bank, announced Monday, is the first group of surplus foreclosed properties Fannie Mae plans to give Detroit. The goal is for most to be sold to qualified buyers who can rehabilitate them and the rest be demolished. […]
November 23, 2014 | The Detroit News
Detroit – — Wayne County has begun tax foreclosure proceedings on nearly 75,000 properties, a record number that includes thousands of delinquent accounts that officials have ignored for years.
Treasury workers last month began posting notices on the properties that the county plans to auction in fall 2015 if owners don’t pay taxes or agree to payment plans. In Detroit alone, 62,000 properties owing $326.4 million in taxes, interest […]