I have a plan to fix Detroit and help Michigan and the national real estate market. The government could offer to buy any house in Detroit for a 10k credit or so, and then take them all down. Likely in this market they would clear out most of the city. This would help the rest of the country. Some blacks would howl but this would likely desegregate the city for good. Detroit would actually be better off and have a chance to revive itself with all the open land. Everyone would move to the suburbs and use their credit put a down payment on the empty houses there. The suburbs might not like that but they need to sell those houses and it would likely increase their value. Obviously, there's a massive surplus. Some people who want to move elsewhere for jobs would be able to that. You could do this in a number of big or even mid-sized cities with super cheap old housing stock, mostly in the midwest. Let's face it. These houses are going to be abandoned in the next few years anyway. Here's a chance to get a jump on. It would create lots of jobs too. If you tore down that many houses that quick (plus various larger building) you'd need tens of thousands of people. If nothing is done about this it will drag on and ruin more and more neighborhoods. It's exactly like the auto companies and the banks for that matter.