That's cheaper than a soda.

Browsing on that site can be fun. Whats interesting is how you can sometime piece whole blocks together. If someone ever wanted to try and buy up whole areas, it could be done in some places.

Don't forget sales tax. That may put it out of my price range. I wonder what the monthly mortgage payments would be?

Somebody here please buy it.

OK

Ucityman wrote:
im so confused though, that has to be a typo.

It's not a typo though they don't just give it to anyone with a dollar. You must have a good plan and PROOF of the financial wherewithall to follow through (or just be buddies with the alderman).

Shopping list:



-- Gum

-- Toothpaste

-- Chapstick

-- 4-family flat

This is what happened in the early 70's in this and many other cities. Lafayette Square exists as it is today because of people who came in and invested and rehabed (at that time St. Louis lead rehabing 2 to 1 over any other city). I don't know if LS had the $1-a-house thing, but I know they did it in other cities. This is a great way to turn a neighborhood around, and I'm glad the powers that be had sense enough to return to this practice.

my parents bought a house in the square in '71 for the cheapest they could find at $1000. but it made people that were serious about fixing a house to make an investment. most of their inhearted neighboors did not.

$1000 was cheap in LS even in '71. Most houses were going for 3, $4000, and even that was dirt cheap. Even so, I think by then LS had rules and regulations that went with such bargains.

This reminds me of a friend that bought a house in what I think is now called Benton Park West with a credit card. It was so cheap, it didn't max out his card. It was a beautiful house but needed total modernizaton. I think he got it for around $500.00. That was years ago, my memory is fuzzy, and I don't know what the circumstances were. Oh, and the neighborhood was crummy. He lived in a nice apt. in the CWE while working on it himself. I have lost touch and don't know how the story ended up. But, if he still has the house, I am certain it is worth far more today.

I have a similar acquaintence that paid only $10k for a shell still with sturdy floor joists on Russell in Fox Park about 5-10 years ago. He put only $50k into the place to make it liveable. Such investment doesn't get you a historic restoration, or the latest finishes, but a modern minimalist interior combined with historic curb appeal.

There's nothing wrong with that! At least it's inhabited by someone who will take care of it.