I'll bet some of them are wonderful...a fantastic opportunity for the right buyers.

It seems like the two biggest hurdles would be employment (but some people have "take anywhere" jobs or an independent income stream) and I hear there are lots of crackheads.

I live in downtown Detroit and I am 44 (going on 19) years old. I have lived in SD for 8 years in the 90s and to compare the two would take a book. This is my 6th year totaly car free and yes it can be a trip at times but when I used a car I stil had to look out for the crack heads and drunk bus drivers. O yea we have a bike lane in front of GM that was prob used for a photo shoot prop but is now a taxi stand! Any town is a good town to bike in if you even 1/2 way like the town you live in. I feel so in contact with my city now and the people here. It will give you a new sens of your own community if you ride every day. I have found so many good and talented people here just riding every day. When I was in my car I only saw the hatred and anger that thrives here. It makes me sad to think of what may happen to this town with the way things are but I am all for the bicycle here and this is one place it can only get better!

With all the auto wealth Detroit once shared. Detroit is hardly all what the media portrays it to be..
Before Nafta Detroit had the largest percentage of single family ownerhip of any city in America. take the Thanksgiving Home tour of "Indian Village,' you'll see some of America's grandest homes.
...
Indian Village is a historic neighborhood located on Detroit's east side bound to the north and south by Mack Avenue and East Jefferson Avenue, respectively, along the streets of Burns, Iroqouis, and Seminole.

It has a number of architecturally-significant homes built in the early 20th century. A number of the houses have been substantially restored, and many others well kept up, allowing the area to avoid much of the blight and decay that has characterized other historic neighborhoods in the city. Bordering Indian Village to the west is West Village, with additional historic homes, townhouses, and apartments.

Many of the homes were built by prominent architects such as Albert Kahn, Louis Kamper and William Stratton for some of the area's most prominent citizens such as Edsel Ford. A lot of homes are very large, with some over 12,000 square feet (1,100 m²). Many have a carriage house, with some of those being larger than an average suburban home. Some of the houses also have large amounts of Pewabic Pottery tiles. [2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Village,_Detroit