( CNN ) -- If an e-mail popped up in your inbox promising a house for $ 100 , you 'd expect to see it sent from a guy in Nigeria asking you to wire him several thousand dollars first . Zeb Smith lies on his front lawn and spends a quiet afternoon with his neighbors . But this depressed housing market dream is real . And Detroit , Michigan , artist Jon Brumit and his wife , Sarah , are living it . The couple never counted on owning a home . `` It 's not that we have a little money , '' Jon Brumit said , laughing . `` I 'm saying we have no money . '' But the couple began entertaining the idea of a permanent nest when their friends Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert , also artists , started taking advantage of foreclosures in the city , where the average home price dipped to $ 11,533 in April , according to the Detroit Association of Realtors . Dragging down the average are homes that are long abandoned or foreclosed on that are selling for pennies on the dollar . Detroit already had the lowest market value houses in Michigan before the latest rounds of job losses at GM and other huge employers , market analysts say . `` Those artists are doing a good thing ; they are at least helping to stabilize neighborhoods that would be all but lost , '' said Mike Shedlock , an investment adviser who blogs frequently about Detroit 's economy . For less than a few thousand dollars , Cope and Reichert snapped up a dilapidated bungalow in a north Detroit neighborhood called `` BanglaTown , '' for its unexpected mix of Bangladeshis , African-Americans , Polish and Ukrainians and the occasional shady character . Scrappers had cleaned the house to the bone . The copper had been stolen ; the electrical wiring was stripped . But no matter . Here was a chance for Cope and Reichert , who run a popular Detroit art store , to rehabilitate the 1920s brick house into a bastion of energy savings , with solar panels , LED lights , recycled wood and high-end insulated windows . They 're installing a security system that exemplifies elegant efficiency with hurricane-proof windows and steel doors replacing burglar bars . They are also experimenting with running their air-conditioning on a car battery . The project became known as the Power House . Cope and Reichert wanted to create a central place to power homes nearby and , in turn , revive a neighborhood 's sense of community . The trick was getting their friends not only to cheer the concept but invest in it by moving next door . `` It was much easier than we thought it might be , '' Cope said . `` We told everyone that Detroit is an interesting city to work in as an artist , and the neighborhood is diverse . But , really , it came down to money . '' `` I kept telling Mitch , 'Wow those are an awesome , ridiculously good deals but if you find anything that 's less , let me know , '' Brumit said . `` Like , if something comes along for next to nothing , cool . '' A few weeks later , Cope e-mailed Brumit a photo of an abandoned home on his block . Its windows were boarded up and plywood was nailed across the front door . The huge hole in the roof was courtesy of the fire department . A neighbor said the house had been set on fire -- twice . Pricetag : $ 100 . Brumit called a real estate agent with the Department of Housing and Urban Development , who confirmed that bids on the foreclosed property started at $ 95 for the property , $ 5 for the house . There were no back taxes -- no one seemed to be sure who once owned the house , it had been empty for so long , Brumit said . Cope , also a designer and builder , and an inspector did a walk-through . `` Inspection was fine and Mitch told me the foundation was good , '' Brumit said . `` He just said , 'If you did n't mind scraping some peeling paint , doing some surface treatments , putting in new utilities , windows and repairing the roof ... this could be pretty interesting . ' '' Now , when he 's not hauling loads of rubble away or knocking out walls to create a single , open studio space , Brumit 's searching Craigslist for a furnace . In exchange for designing the business Web site of a local barn recycler , he 's getting materials to turn that hole in his roof into a skylight . `` I saw it as a project , '' the artist said . `` I 'm a builder . I 've been building skateboards since I was 12 . '' Skateboards are one thing . Rebuilding homes where the plumbing has been ripped out or the cabinets destroyed in a fit by an upset foreclosed homeowner is another . Michigan housing authorities acknowledge that there 's little incentive for people who are n't quite as handy as Brumit . In two weeks , the state will begin offering $ 25,000 to anyone who buys a home , as long as they pay 1 percent of the total cost and live in it . Landlords or speculators are n't eligible . Part of a $ 263 million grant given to Michigan and other states under 2008 's Housing and Economic Recovery Act , the funds are intended to help buyers bring trashed properties up to code , according to Mary Townley , a director with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority . She and other housing officials CNN spoke with said Michigan 's economy has some extremely frustrating woes . A report from the nonprofit think tank Brookings Institution said Detroit had the lowest performing economy out of 100 U.S. cities it analyzed -- scoring the worst in unemployment and average wages , the highest foreclosure rates and the lowest market value homes . The artists in BanglaTown are careful to say they are not looking to change a city . Their goal is simply to improve a neighborhood , one house at a time . New neighbors , freelance photographer Corine Vermeulen-Smith and her husband Zeb Smith , a designer , are always checking out www.freecycle.com , where a stainless steel kitchen sink can be bought for $ 65 . The Smiths bought their 660-square-foot home for $ 549.99 from Cope and Reichert , who originally purchased the foreclosed home for $ 500 . `` We knew the property , we knew it had been sitting there empty for at least a year , and it had been trashed , '' Vermeulen-Smith said . `` But we wanted to own a home . '' All the copper in their `` micro-home '' had been ripped out , as well as every electrical outlet , Vermeulen-Smith said . Trash had to be hauled out in several loads . `` You have to get over that fear that the house had that history , that you 're going to be a victim of a crime or something , '' she said . `` Crime is everywhere . My husband and I have lived in the city for a long time ; we know that people look out for each other here . We do n't have that kind of fear . '' Careful not to entice thieves again , the Smiths replaced the copper with plastic . They are considering taking the home completely off the grid by installing a mini-wind turbine , but for now they are happy to put in the basics . A bathtub from Habitat for Humanity cost them $ 100 . And Zeb Smith , who works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit , brings home wood the museum would otherwise toss when installations close . `` This is , for us , very exciting to believe that we could totally reinvent a space , '' she said , `` and prove that having a home is n't about having money . ''
Detroit artists bought a trashed , abandoned house for $ 100 , fixing it up . Other artists have bought cheap houses in the same neighborhood . The White House was the first home , meant to complement the other houses nearby .