Can Detroit come back real-estate-wise?

Detroit is coming back real-estate-wise. I am not surprised. I studied it somewhat because it was an interesting case study.

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In the early 1950s, Detroit was the world equivalent of Silicon Valley in the 1990s and 2000s. Booming Motown, cars being the hot industry. That was when my parents and maybe most others first became car owners, the massive transformation of the cities and suburbs.

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Arguably, Detroit created the transportation revolution that destroyed it. Although, it must be admitted that it's first black mayor Cpleman Young also DEIed it to death. Other cities were not destroyed by the spread of car ownership.

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The Detroit REGION is still a powerhouse. And it's easy to see why. Great Lakes. Massive railroad hub. Tremendous population. Biggest crossing point to Canada.

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Actually, Young was not interested in diversity, just distributing the spoils of power to blacks and driving whites and the most successful blacks out of the city.

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When I was a real estate agent in Camden County, NJ, the other agents and I joked that the city of Camden---my birthplace---would be super value real estate if it could just be burned to the ground so you could start over. It is directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, the third largest city in the US then, and a great place then, not now.

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So how did Detroit go from disastrous ghetto to real estate success story? The ghetto residents burned it down. I read a book about it titled "It's Cheaper Than a Movie." That was the answer one ghetto resident gave to the question, "Why do you guys keep setting fire to vacant housees in your neighborhood?" They found watching the firemen come to put it out entertaining.

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Now capitalists are starting over.

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Am I giving a buy signal on Detroit? No. I do not know enough about it. But I do know it is a great location from a big-picture standpoint. If the bad element is totally gone it may be one of the great municipal restoration stories of all time.