Selling Homes for $1 Instead of Demolition
Many old homes in Buffalo, N.Y., are abandoned and targeted for demolition. Through the city’s Urban Homestead program, preservation activists are getting residents to buy such homes for $1 each and promise to renovate and move into them. (Alana Semuels / Los Angeles Times)
Selling Homes for $1 Instead of Demolition | Buffalonians are purchasing homes for just one dollar through a city program, while at the same time helping bring blighted properties in neighborhoods back to life.
Matthew Newton purchased a home that’s over 200 years old on the east side. Newton purchased the home through Buffalo’s Urban Homestead Program three and a half years ago. The floors were collapsing into the basement, windows were boarded up and there were no standard systems like electricity.