The Detroit Land Bank Authority is an organization that works with the local government to sell these homes to buyers. In 2014, the City of Detroit, Wayne County, and the State of Michigan started transferring ownership of the homes to the Land Bank.
"It was an effort to consolidate a mass of publicly owned properties within the city of Detroit," Alyssa Strickland, the assistant director of public relations and strategic initiatives at the Detroit Land Bank Authority, told me.
The homes go up for auction on the Lank Bank website, starting at $1,000. When the auctions close, the average homes sell for just under $5,000, but some could reach $50,000. A buyer is then expected to renovate and restore the home to livable standards within six months to ensure it doesn't remain abandoned under the new ownership.
Strickland said the bulk of the Land Bank's remaining inventory is "modest, single-family homes under 2,000 square feet."