You can't beat the purchase price on 1922 Dean Blvd. This quaint one-story home in an attractive neighborhood between West Boulevard and Taylor Avenue is selling for $1.
The city purchased the foreclosed home from the county for a buck. Of course, the house is a major fixer-upper, but there are usable pieces, said Jean Wolfgang, an associate planner in the city development department.
As it stands now, the house is unlivable. It has big holes in the roof and the interior has mold issues from water damage. But the foundation is in good shape and the site plan is workable, Wolfgang said. The city plans to work with Habitat for Humanity knock down the house to its first-floor decking and rebuild a single-family home on the foundation. 
Wolfgang said there are many "wins" with this house. The county is saving about $10,000 by not having to demolish the home, the city removes a blighted property from a nice neighorhood and Habitat uses its volunteer labor to provide an affordable home to a family with a no-interest mortgage, she said.The city and county are in the final stages of working out the property transfer. Along with the $1 purchase price, the city will pay about $4,500 in outstanding taxes, special assessments and fees.
Once the city secures the property, Habitat will make a presentation to the city's Loan Review Board including design and cost. If the board approves, work will begin on building the new home.
Photo-Top: 1922 Deane Blvd.
Photo-Middle-Right: The home's roof is in rough shape.
Photo-Bottom-Right: The surrounding neighborhood is filled with charming, single-family homes.
This is a tremendous collaboration. It is great for the neighborhood, the city and it will provide an opprtunity for new ownership.
ReplyDeleteGreat - when one adds up the salaries of city employees who on the clock over this, contractors, more meetings, more contractors, a consultant or five, the blessing of the Corridor Development Expert (CDE), lunches, trips, etc. - that $1 will turn into $100,000+
ReplyDelete9:12 - Get real, let's hear your suggestions for the property. Let it sit until the thing colapses? How assinine to be negative just for the sake of being negative. Let's see you itemize and verify the items you quote for $100,000 - idiot.
ReplyDeleteGet real? Are you twelve? Have fun at your next KRM prayer meeting -
ReplyDeleteRather find reasons to do nothing than come up with an alternative. How sad that this is all they have to do.
ReplyDeleteI'll give 'em $20 for it.
ReplyDeleteFurthmore 9:38, I walked sixth street from city hall to Main the other day. I estimate that around a third of the buildings are for sale and some of those are empty. Yet our economic development gurus in conjunction with a gang of business owners killed the plans of a businessman to open a store on that street. Yes, make a big deal out of this crappy house getting fixed while missing opportunites - there have been and will be others - to allow (not bring in - ALLOW) business to happen. What will generate more tax revenue - one business in a year or this house in twenty years (minus expenses, of course)?
ReplyDelete9:57 - And where are your specifics - Oh, that's right, you don't have any - "GREAT REAL" YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
ReplyDeleteGET THAT IS!
ReplyDelete10:48 you are the one complaining, but than that's the only thing you know how to do. If I am opposed to something I would give my reasons and suggest alternatives. Those complaining seem to lack the ability to think.
ReplyDeleteI see that the PIO is busy posting defending his boss
ReplyDeleteWhy not move that house from 1761 Main St to this lot. It would inprove both neighborhoods!
ReplyDelete11:00 - get your facts or comments straight. I have the 1st comment out here. I was responding to one of the naysayers.
ReplyDeleteWell if 11:00 was right on the time he picked, thanks. If he/she was really kvetching about me, I DID provide specifics: don't spout about putting new windshield wipers on a car that has no windshield. Prioritize. ALLOW business to flourish. Get your heads out of your corridors . . .
ReplyDeleteThis is likely a sign of things to come. The foreclosure help that was supposed to come from the feds has failed by all accounts. Foreclosures are increasing so these types of house will continue to increase.
ReplyDeleteEconomists are now predicting a new recession coming soon and continued high unemployment for the next 10 years. So this is our future people. The City has to try something.
Hyperactive Washington DC is working on everything but the economy and jobs so we will continue to get bad legislation out of Washington as cover for what they are failing at like jobs and foreclosures. Analyst say that Washington is going to continue to crank out bad unpopular legislation so we focus on that rather than the failures. This is our change folks.
Why not level the building, backfill and turn it into a community garden?
ReplyDeleteAs a neighbor who lives on this street, we are hopeful and happy that this house is being improved. It serves no value to anyone as it sits and rots away.
ReplyDeleteGood idea Steve - and they could put it out to bid on the wrecking to make it attractive (wrecker keeps usable materials). People from the neighborhood could all have plots. No favored contractors would make lots of fix-up cash on this deal though.
ReplyDelete10:26... The store on sixth was not told they couldn't open a business. They were denied a permit to sell liquor. They could have opened a store but were only interested in selling booze.
ReplyDelete12:28... Maybe Amanda can clarify this, but I heard that this house was abandoned long before the federal program started for mortgage relief.
I agree with what the City is trying here. Neighborhoods matter. Watching homes like this deteriorate and doing nothing about it only causes further blight.
Incedentally: My folks live in a suburban McMansion neighborhood and a bunch of houses in their neighborhood are suffering a similar fate. People stop paying, then just move out. The homes are not selling and are not maintained. My dad says the houses stopped selling in 2006, way before the Dems took over. And this problem is happening all over, not just in Racine.
"but were only interested in selling booze."
ReplyDeleteabsolutely and verifyably incorrect
I don't think it matters what neighborhood you are in now there will be a foreclosed house empty or recently bought from the bank. The housing bubble burst beyond sub prime to all mortgages that were higher than the present value of the house. For every first time buyer getting a great deal there is a former owner with a sad story.
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is that so many people who have lost their houses are beating up the houses to punish the bank for lending them the money in the first place. That's the hard part to understand. It isn't the bank's fault or the new buyers fault for the situation. The blame falls on Washington during the Clinton years when the lending institutions were ordered to give everyone who wanted a loan a loan. This all goes back to a bill signed by Clinton in May of 1999 that changed the long held formulas for home lending. Attempts by the Bush admin in 2004 to reverse things were successfully blocked by Barney Frank.
To beat up the house to punish the bank for lending people money just seems senseless. But every neighborhood has a beat up house. Some houses are just more visible than others. It won't get better soon.
With the revelations about Goldman Sachs today, I simply cannot believe that the Republicans in Congress have already declared en masse that they're going to sit on their hands once again to oppose needed financial reform designed to stop the type of Wall Street frauds that created this housing market collapse and subsequent recession in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are wholly irresponsible, costing regular American citizens billions of dollars in favor of making sure the wealthy bankers and speculators continue to receive their billions in profits and millions in compensation. Meanwhile, people are jobless, their equity in their homes destroyed, their retirement savings devastated.
It's a crime.
When they level this house do they recycle the usable parts? The lift out front, bricks etc?
ReplyDeleteHeadlines
ReplyDeleteJOHNSON'S WAX BUILDS WORLD CLASS CULTURAL CENTER IN RACINE,WISCONSIN
The massive Complex will include a modern new high tech Public Library, Fine Arts Museum, Heritage Museum and a large Theater for stage and music productions. all under one roof with a public mall space in the center. The complex is to be built on City land.
A member of the Johnson family remarked at the ribbon cutting - "The best interests of our home town have always been our first priority"
Laugh now!! But I've seen crazier things happen in my short life. Maybe I'm a dreamer? But so was the original Samuel C. Johnson and look what happened to his dream
8:43 - Huh???
ReplyDelete"I simply cannot believe that the Republicans in Congress have already declared en masse that they're going to sit on their hands once again to oppose needed financial reform..."
ReplyDeleteNo reform is better than the wrong reform.
Tim the Shrubber, you are an ignorant fool.
ReplyDeleteOk, I've finally come out and said it publicly. I have been noticing the complete ignorance of Tim the Shrubber's posts for months now, and couldn't contain myself any longer.
Actually "Jim the Irish Pubber" you are the ignorant one if you think that doing something wrong is better than doing nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with "Tim".