A new report has shown celebratory news for Detroit, MI.
“The Growth of Housing Wealth in Detroit and its Neighborhoods: 2014-2022,” a study by the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions, has been released showing that Black homeowners in Detroit have “gained $2.8 billion in home value,” per a news release.
Beginning in 2014, the study was conducted after Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy. In July 2013, Detroit became “the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy,” per AP News.
The news release details that the study had a goal of finding out if the city’s housing values had seen growth across those nine years, and if these improvements had been fairly distributed across Detroit neighborhoods and racial/ethnic groups. With an 94% overall increase in home value, and 80% increase for Black homeowners specifically, since the study started, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan credits residents stabilizing neighborhoods and city employees working to improve neighborhoods as key factors behind this new milestone. What’s more, the study notes that the significant decrease in tax foreclosures in Detroit also led to an increase in wealth.
“For the past nine years, the active members of 600 organized block clubs and neighborhood associations in the city have been working to rebuild their neighborhoods,” Duggan shared, according to the news release. “The $3 billion in new home wealth they have created and earned is a direct result of their dedication and hard work.”
Ken Scott, former president of the Greater Detroit Realtist Association, chimed in,“There has been a huge shift for the better in Detroit’s home values, driven largely by the improvements being made in neighborhoods. My fellow realtors and I have been seeing this shift for years. Black owned homes are rising in value, and Black families are gaining the most family wealth. And while home values have risen dramatically, there is a lot of growth yet to come. Detroit homes are beautiful and dollar-for-dollar still a great value.”
In addition to the $2.8 billion in new wealth, the study also showed that neighborhoods in Detroit with the lowest home values in 2014 made the highest jump with a 300% spike in 2022. Moreover, in that same year, home sales saw an increase of 853%.
