This past week, taking advantage of the moderate weather, we began our annual exterior survey of our properties a bit earlier than normal. We walk around the exteriors of all the properties to set a prioritized project list for spring/summer 2015.
The neighborhoods we operate in are the near Southside, from just north of National to Cleveland, 1st to 36th.
While the primary focus is reviewing our properties, we also get a good sense of what is happening generally in the neighborhoods.
If this was a rock band I would have called this the “Fresh Mud and New Green Board Tour” It was absolutely surprising how many properties have been bulldozed and how many more properties are boarded and abandoned since doing the fall review in Sept/Oct of last year.
Anyone who tells you the real estate market on the near Southside has or is rebounding from the 2008 housing bubble hasn’t been out much. đ I wrote about what I was seeing in the past  and again here. It is much worse now.
Many of the new board ups are nice looking properties. However as they accumulate city âreinspection feesâ and fines they get to the point they cannot be sold and languish until they are stripped of all value, foreclosed upon by the city for taxes and ultimately razed.
But at least the city was able to tack some fees on it. Fees that they never collected because when the City becomes the owner the only thing left to do was bulldoze them. (The one pictured in the link is now a mud lot).  Many of these are Zombie Houses
We are seeing sale prices in Milwaukee that make Detroit almost look like a healthy market.
The sales below are listed in the Journal’s Recent Deals sales listing
$11,000: 2356 W Becher St – MILWAUKEE (01/06/15)
$4,000: 2328 S 4th St – MILWAUKEE (01/15/15)
$1,000: 1962 S 16th St – MILWAUKEE (01/02/15)
$3,375: 4624 N 29th St – MILWAUKEE (01/13/15)
$2,850: 323 E Chambers St – MILWAUKEE (12/05/14)
$2,625: 2904 N 16th St – MILWAUKEE (11/24/14)
$37,000: 3410 S 1st PL – MILWAUKEE (01/16/15) â a pretty nice neighborhood.
