As if we needed further evidence as to the morbid state of the U.S. real estate market, here it is. A Toronto developer is the winning bidder for the 88,000 seat "Silverdome" located outside Detroit in Pontiac, Michigan. Situated on 127 acres and built at a cost of over $55 million U.S. in 1975, the Silverdome was the former home of the Detroit Lions football team and hosted concerts, monster truck shows and the like. I remember being in the area on business some years ago when Fleetwood Mack arrived at my hotel for a concert in the dome that evening. The winning bid was a paltry $583,000 which needless-to-say wouldn't pay to renovate the washrooms in the place today. Even without the building, the buyer paid just under $5,000 an acre for the 127 acres, a bargain price in virtually any urban market.
Real estate sales such as this bring a whole new meaning to the term "crash." This is not the typical price depreciation you would expect to see in recessionary times and you have to wonder if the the U.S. will ever fully recover to the economic status they once held or are developing countries such as China and India going to be the new global economic super powers of the future?
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