Detroit: From Motor City to Housing Incubator
- 7 years ago
Detroit: From Motor City to Housing Incubator
As with any new program, the couple said, there were “growing pains.”
The Detroit Home Mortgage project is now looking to get banks to provide low-interest loans directly
to local contractors, so they can renovate more homes and get them into move-in-ready condition
The land bank owns some 25,000 vacant homes in various stages of disrepair, another 4,200 occupied homes
and 65,000 grass-covered lots where homes once stood before the city tore them down in an effort to fight blight.
“DHM wants to be an ambassador for lending in the city,” said Alex DeCamp, the mortgage community development
manager for Chemical Bank, a local lender that has funded 15 loans through the program.
So far this year, the bank has issued 23 mortgages in Detroit — up from 18 in 2016 — and has increased the number of loan officers in the city.
Mr. Leenhouts, 59, said, “I have no idea where I would be living if I was not chosen for a tiny house.”
That said, a cluster of tiny homes hardly seems scalable in a city as big as Detroit.
So, guess how many home mortgage loans these two enormous banks made last year in this city of 637,000 people.
Yet as home prices soar across the United States — particularly on the coasts — Detroit
remains a poster child for the economic crisis and housing collapse of a decade ago.
As with any new program, the couple said, there were “growing pains.”
The Detroit Home Mortgage project is now looking to get banks to provide low-interest loans directly
to local contractors, so they can renovate more homes and get them into move-in-ready condition
The land bank owns some 25,000 vacant homes in various stages of disrepair, another 4,200 occupied homes
and 65,000 grass-covered lots where homes once stood before the city tore them down in an effort to fight blight.
“DHM wants to be an ambassador for lending in the city,” said Alex DeCamp, the mortgage community development
manager for Chemical Bank, a local lender that has funded 15 loans through the program.
So far this year, the bank has issued 23 mortgages in Detroit — up from 18 in 2016 — and has increased the number of loan officers in the city.
Mr. Leenhouts, 59, said, “I have no idea where I would be living if I was not chosen for a tiny house.”
That said, a cluster of tiny homes hardly seems scalable in a city as big as Detroit.
So, guess how many home mortgage loans these two enormous banks made last year in this city of 637,000 people.
Yet as home prices soar across the United States — particularly on the coasts — Detroit
remains a poster child for the economic crisis and housing collapse of a decade ago.