Quote - > Quote - My Wife is a research scientist at a pharmaceutical firm, which is doing quite well.  However, her lab has a huge shortage of acetonitrile, a solvent used in large quantities in both pharmaceutical research and manufacturing.  It is produced as part of the process of making plasics used for automobile parts.  Since demand for the plastics are down, the price of high-purity acetonitrile is now over $200/gallon, if it can be gotten at all.

On a somewhat related note, there are 3366 houses for sale in Detroit for under $20,000, some as low as $1.

www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Detroit_MI/price-na-20000/type-single-family-home

Cheers,

Rod

You got to be kiddin me! That's dirt cheap. Is that place so bad that it could be priced as that?

The property taxes still have to be paid.  The homes still have to be kept up or the counties will condemn them or confiscate them.  Homes that sit empty get run down, seals leak in appliances and plumbing, finishes rust and dull as no air conditioning is available to move the air and moisture, etc..

So, unless someone can come in and take over the mortgage, holding the note on a piece of property is a LIABILITY for a bank.  Believe it or not, banks are not in the real-estate business.  They're in the loan business.  The last thing a bank every wants to do is kick out a mortgage holder.  But, they've been forced to do that.  This is the consequences of that "final solution" act by many, many banks - A real estate market flooded with homes that represent continuing liability for banks with no buyers in sight.

(PS- Starting an auction at $1.00 means there is no minimum bid.  Homes rarely go for that.  BUT, it wouldn't be out of the question to be able to pick up a home that might have sold for 100k years ago for 10k.  The bank might even be very happy to get that much for it.