Will we see houses being sold at Poundland ?

formulaonefan

Seriously though! Is it that bad?
Is it everywhere or only in certain areas?
How much property prices have gone down in the US?
Surely prices will raise after few years (say 4 or 5 years?)

carolt

Sounds cheap for a large soda.

BiggaThanBen

lynzpower wrote: »

can it really be THAT bad to live in one of these houses? I live in one of the roughest parts of london already, so suppose i could take it....

Eminem lived there, and look, he is famous now .. if you buy a house in that area there is a great chance you will be a celebrity it 10 years time ... or even a superstar!

amcluesent

Buy for a $1, rent to a crack addict for $2, 100% return!

BobProperty

I think the article explains the situation:

So desperate was the bank owner of 8111 Traverse Street to unload the property that it agreed to pay $2,500 in sales commission and another $1,000 bonus for closing the $1 sale; the bank also will pay $500 of the buyer's closing costs. Throw in back taxes and a water bill, and unloading the house will cost the bank about $10,000. "It doesn't make sense in some neighborhoods to keep paying costs and costs," Colpaert said. "It can make more financial sense to give it away."

The bank would keep having to pay the taxes and utilities plus I guess no one would go in those sorts of areas to do any maintenance. (not without an armed guard anyway). These tend to be the most rundown areas where unemployment is huge and with no chance of that changing in the near future. If you are lucky it won't already be a crack house or be territory being disputed by rival local gangs.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

My memory is not too good. However I am sure I once saw a program about a very 'drepressed' area in the North where a Council sold off houses/flats etc., for £1. The idea being, if people moved into the area and owned the properties the area would improve.

There was this guy who bought two flats (one above the other) to make a house for £2.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

Found it! The $1 House

http://www.onedollarsale.ca/oneeurohouse.html

fc123

Debt_Free_Dreamer wrote: »

My memory is not too good. However I am sure I once saw a program about a very 'drepressed' area in the North where a Council sold off houses/flats etc., for £1. The idea being, if people moved into the area and owned the properties the area would improve.

There was this guy who bought two flats (one above the other) to make a house for £2.

I recall seeing that programme. The idea was that owner occupierswould 'improve' the area themselves.

Northern_girl_2

fc123 wrote: »

I recall seeing that programme. The idea was that owner occupierswould 'improve' the area themselves.

My landlord at University claimed he bought under a similar scheme. I think it went along the lines of you bought the house for a peppercorn price but agreed to match x amount that the Council would give as a grant to bring it up to a decent standard.

Don't know how true it was but if he did then it was a wise move on his behalf. It's a studenty area with what I'm sure would be good returns and few voids.

dopester

There were the 50p homes in North Benwell back in 1999, but you had to prove you had cash to invest for improvements and the council would give a grant too. Maybe they'll be going back to 50p again in the future.

I went to UK property auctions in early 90s when things were really hard going and saw the damage with flats and houses being sold off for a fraction of the price at top of the boom - although that time looks like just a sneeze compared to the knock-out flu which is coming.