"Detroit Needs Residents, but Sends Some Packing" is the headline on a Page One story Friday in The New York Times that takes a big-picture look at the tens of thousands of homes in Detroit endangered by foreclosure.
The story, by Monica Davey, who writes frequently about Detroit, notes that in a city that desperately needs to hold onto residents, there is a virtual pipeline out.
At least 70,000 foreclosures have taken place since 2009 because of delinquent property taxes. And more than 43,000 properties — more than one in 10 in this city — were subject to foreclosure this year, some of them headed for a public auction where prices can start as low as $500.
Other cities wrestle with unpaid taxes, too, but the size of Detroit’s problem is staggering. Several factors have brought the city to the point that crucial revenues are not being collected and thousands of houses are being taken away each year — not by banks, for failure to make mortgage payments, but by the government, for failure to pay taxes. Contributing are soaring rates of poverty, high taxes despite painfully diminished city services and a long pattern of lackadaisical tax collection by the city.
While Davey's story is comprehensive and revealing -- even to local readers -- the interactive graphic that accompanies the article shows multi-page mosaic of the homes that were subject to foreclosure as of Jan. 1.
The images are so numerous that even scrolling through them rapidly takes nearly three minutes.
According to The Times:
This mosaic, created with images from Google Maps Street View, shows one of the many enormous challenges facing Detroit as it tries to climb out of debt. As of January, the owners of these properties collectively owed more than $328 million. Since then, some have paid their debts, entered in payment plans or qualified for assistance. But 26,038 properties, shown with a yellow triangle, remain in jeopardy, and many are headed for public auction.
Click here for Davey's story.
Click here for the interactive graphic.
