"It would be nice not to have to keep extra towels around just in case the truck gets wet," said Sergio Mojica, 21, of Allen Park who showed his red 1998 Chevrolet S-10 lowrider at the three-day event that drew an estimated 130,000 people "Some of these guys have paint jobs that cost more than my entire truck..."

The dirt- and salt-laced water that splattered on expensive paint jobs required a three-step process to clean to prevent scratching the vehicle veneers, (Show manager Bob) Larivee said. "We've got guys bringing cars worth $40,000 to $500,000-$600,000. If the show gets a reputation, 'If you bring your car, you will get water on it,' no one will come."

What Bob doesn't realize is that he's talking about Detroit, the City where one of those fancy car owners could trade in his whip and buy, oh, six-hundred houses.

The Associated Press reports this morning that nearly 2,000 homes in the D are currently for sale for less than $10,000 apiece.  

The result?  Looks like we've got a few Brits (that's not a racial epithet these days, is it Revrend Sharpton?) looking to build their own Motor-City fiefdoms.  

In extreme cases, homes are on sale for $1 or less, which has enticed investors to Detroit from as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia.

"In the past few months, I've picked up 10 new clients from out of state that are buying in bulk," said Mike Shannon, a suburban Detroit real estate agent. His office specializes in foreclosures in a city that's among the national leaders.

"They're coming to us, saying `Look, I want to buy 50, 100, 1,000.' They want to own every decent and cheap house they can find."

It isn't that Michigan residents hadn't thought of that themselves... its just that no one in this state has fifty bucks to burn buying fifty buildings in Detroit.  (Wait, should I have used "burn" and "Detroit" in the same sentence?  Sorry about that.)