The Washington Post analyzed 2021 home sales by ZIP code in the top 40 metropolitan markets. Detroit falls within the top 10 with investors buying a high percentage of homes. There is extensive “investor” activity across the city. We’ve been tracking this issue with Property Praxis investigating speculative land buyers since 2016. This is a concerning trend that appears to have only continued during the pandemic.

From Develop Detroit CEO Sonya Mays:

For example, in 48238 (Russell Woods to Fitzgerald) investors bought 69% of homes in 2021!!! Honestly, I can’t make much sense of this – I assume that the Land Bank activities drive some portion of this outcome and I assume that overall home sales in this zip are relatively low. I was well aware that this activity was going on across Detroit, but did not anticipate this scale. I have so many questions.