Authorities in southeastern Michigan are selling 22,500 properties whose owners failed to pay their taxes in an auction that began Friday and runs through this week.
The online auction site www.bid4assets.com is conducting the auction for Wayne County. The county's September 2011 auction sold 7,500 properties and brought in about $32 million, according to the Detroit Free Press.
County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski said revenue expected from the auction should help the county deal with a tight budget and the responsibility of being a landlord for so many properties.
"It's absolutely stretching us to the limit in terms of our resources," Szymanski said.
The auction concludes a process that began with county efforts to collect late taxes on 42,000 properties.
Bidders had to register by Sept. 7 and pay refundable deposits. Buyers must pay the back taxes as part of the purchase.
The auction has a measure to prevent last minute outbids. Any bid on a property within its last minute will automatically add five minutes to the auction.
For example, the sale of a property at 2518 N. La Salle Gardens in Detroit that began at 11 a.m. Friday is scheduled to end at 11 a.m. Monday. If someone places a bid at 10:59 a.m., the auction will stretch on for a few minutes past 11 a.m., Szymanski said. The minimum bid is $8,600.
In the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood on Detroit's east side, Anne Matthews, 71, said one of the houses up for sale was once hers. She is among a group of longtime residents who try to keep vacant houses clean and the neighborhood safe.
Matthews gave the big house to her granddaughter to maintain, and while the house and those around it are in nice condition, she was sad to learn the taxes hadn't been paid.
Matthews said she and community leaders hope that some of the houses up for grabs will go to people who can maintain them.
"These are the same houses that were built in Grosse Pointe," a neighboring group of more affluent suburban communities where home values are higher, said James Jackson of the Jefferson-Chalmers Homeowners Association. "This depression has brought folks to a different place."
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