This MarketWatch story discusses the Flint crisis from the perspective of lost home values that deepen the economic woes of a city already facing difficulties:
The Flint real-estate market had long been depressed after the loss of many jobs in the nearby auto industry. Flint had been the heart of General Motors auto manufacturing for decades and built tanks and aircraft engines that helped win World War II, but employment by GM and its affiliates had dropped to about 7,000 by 2008, down from 83,000 in the 1950s. About 41% of the city’s 100,000 residents live below the federal poverty line.
Median home sales prices in Flint had risen from a 10-year low in April 2014 to $46,700 in August of last year . But the water poisoning crisis at the end of December dropped selling prices to $30,700, according to Zillow.com.
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“The impact on homeowners is far-reaching,” said Aracely Panameno, Latino Affairs Director at the Center for Responsible Lending. “In the absence of comprehensive infrastructure improvements, they face significant losses in property value without any prospect of recovery.” Panameno’s group is calling for the city and state to halt property tax collections on impacted homeowners and for lenders to give homeowners a credit so they can use those funds to pay for water filter systems and replacement of pipes.
