Over the weekend, our friends at Why Don't We Own This? (the site that maps the properties in the foreclosure auction) had some fun with celebrity maps. Sorta. This being Detroit, we're light on real celebrities, but who doesn't love the ones that can still thank Detroit for their roots? WDWOT people have put together a list of which former Detroit celeb's former homes have the most tax-foreclosed properties in the surrounding quarter mile. All these tax foreclosures will be in the next Wayne County tax auction with starting bids of $500. (Registration ends on the 12th and bidding online starts October 19). So who had the most foreclosures for sale?
Eminem's former address mapped 134 available properties listed for sale in the next round of the Wayne County tax auction, the online sale of homes foreclosed on for delinquent taxes. (There are actually 137 tax foreclosed homes total, but 3 were withdrawn from the auction) Mind you: the source of the "celeb" addresses for this post was the book, "Home in Detroit: Where They Lived? in the Motor City". To be fair, the author may not have Eminem's old address quite right.
The author of the book explains, "the only printed documentation I have for Eminem is a phone number, with no address, for a northeast part of Detroit where the pictured home on Dresden is located. This is also the home pictured on the Marshall Mathers LP cover, said to be one of his childhood homes. If that story is true, this is where he lived."
So it is not exactly a deed with his name on it, but let's say we have reason enough to think 19949 Dresden is the place. In any case, the home made famous by an LP cover turns up 134 properties in the surrounding quarter mile. Say each one only sold for a the minimum bid: you could own the whole Kingdom for $67,000.
The entirety of the mapping project turned up some 2,200 properties all tax-foreclosed, in the next auction, and within a quarter mile of one of the 73 different 'celebrities' former homes in the city. Check it out to see what happens when mapping the former homes of Tom Selleck, Berry Gordy, Jack White, and others.
· 73 Former Detroit Celebrity Homes & The $500 Auction Properties Who Love Them [Why Don't We Blog This?]
· Wayne County October Tax Auction [Official]