Discover the potential of investing in real estate in Detroit on a limited budget, with vacant properties selling for as little as $1,000.
Hunter poses on the steps outside her first Detroit property, which she bought for $2,000. The home required extensive renovations. (Chase C. Hunter)
Chase C. Hunter became a real estate investor in Detroit in an unusual way. She searched for “best places to buy cheap properties” on Google.
At the time, Hunter was living in Houston and was curious to see where she could afford to invest in real estate on a limited budget. After searching online, she decided the Motor City certainly seemed to fit the bill, with sites like the Detroit Land Bank Authority selling vacant “as is” properties for as little as $1,000.
Despite her reservations, Hunter pulled the trigger.
I closed on my first two properties the same day in June of 2021,” she says. “The day I closed was my very first time in Detroit.”
Her first property cost $2,000, the second was $1,800. Since then, Hunter has purchased a total of eight Detroit homes. She’s transformed one property into her office, while renovating and renting out the others.
She permanently moved to the city last year to have “boots on the ground” near her investments.
“The market can be a challenge to navigate if you aren’t here every single day,” she explains. “Buyers have to know the culture of Detroit to understand how to invest here.”
Hunter is so passionate about the Detroit market, she became a real estate agent 10 months ago and is launching a real-estate investment group to help others buy and rehab homes in Detroit like she has.
“Investors come to Detroit from all corners of the country because the market is like no other,” says Hunter.
Chase C. Hunter in front of her latest investment property in Detroit. She now owns eight homes in the Motor City. (Chase C. Hunter)
Hunter poses on the steps outside her first Detroit property, which she bought for $2,000. The home required extensive renovations. (Chase C. Hunter)
Detroit bounced back from bankruptcy to ‘real estate boomtown’
In 2013, Detroit infamously filed for bankruptcy, becoming the largest municipal filing in history with $20 billion in debt. But since then, the Motor City has rebounded in a major way, with The Wall Street Journal calling it “America’s most unlikely real-estate boomtown.”
Real estate prices bottomed out in the area in 2009, at a median sale price of $58,900. Since 2009, however, sale prices have climbed annually each year to land at $217,100 in 2023—an impressive 113.3% higher than the median sale price 10 years earlier.
“Buyers, including investors, took advantage of low home prices in the area over the last decade, bringing energy and funds into the city,” says Realtor.com® senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones.
As of the latest data in May 2024, the median sales price in Detroit was $250,000—10.5% higher than just a year earlier. However, Jones points out that “even after substantial price growth, the median sales price in Detroit was still [much] lower than the national sale price.”
The latest figures put the median listing price across the U.S. at $439,950.
Detroit’s spectacular comeback has inspired documentaries like “Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit,” which explores the area’s rise, fall, and revival. Reality TV has also highlighted Detroit’s turnaround with shows like HGTV’s “Bargain Block.” It follows two Detroit real estate investors as they buy abandoned properties and transform them into stylish starter homes.
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