Detroit Foreclosures on Street View

One in three homes in Detroit has been foreclosed in the last 15 years. The result of all those lost homes is physically evident on the city's streets. It is also very evident when exploring the city on Google Maps Street View.

GooBing Detroit uses the historical imagery function in Google Maps Street View to show how Detroit has changed over the years. By juxtaposing Street View images of the same location from different years GooBing Detroit is able to provide an insight into how the streetscapes of Detroit have changed in the first two decades of this century.

The historical Street Views used on GooBing Detroit can be accessed on Google Maps. If you open a Street View panorama on Google Maps a little clock icon in the top left-hand corner of the scene allows you to access the historical Street View captured by Google. If you click on the icon a timeline opens allowing you to view the available Street View imagery by year.


Back in 2014 the New York Times also used Google Maps Street View to take a closer look at foreclosures in Detroit. The Times created a really impressive montage of properties facing foreclosure using Google Maps Street View to show the 43,634 Properties in Detroit That Were on the Brink of Foreclosure in 2014.

The mosaic of 43,634 pictures of Detroit houses is a very effective method to convey the sheer scale of the problem facing many Detroit homeowners in 2014. If you click on the small thumbnail image of a property then a larger image of the home will appear. The good news for Detroit is that the number of foreclosures in the city fell for the third year running in 2018.