Photo credit: New York Times
The New York Times
July 30, 2025
Amy S. Eckert
Detroit is booming, and the figures announced by Mayor Mike Duggan this May only confirmed what those in the real estate industry knew. The city had experienced population growth for two consecutive years and in 2024 it had outpaced not just all other Michigan cities, but also the overall national growth rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The uptick in population has been especially visible in downtown Detroit, where key employers Rocket Mortgage, General Motors, and Ford Motors’ tech innovation center are headquartered.
“We are on track to double our business in 2025, which is astonishing,” said Nika Jusufi, owner of Nika & Co., a real estate brokerage with nearly $28 million in Detroit sales last year.
“We’re seeing creatives, we’re seeing families, we’re seeing young professionals, we’re seeing empty nesters,” Ms. Jusufi said. “We’re seeing transplants and we’re even seeing reverse migration,” individuals who left for the suburbs and are now coming back. “It’s crazy,” she said.
A decade ago, this trend would have been difficult to imagine in Detroit, once derided for its decline. The city shrank 33 percent between 2000 and 2020 and in 2013 became the largest U.S. city ever to declare bankruptcy protection. Back then, the most motivated buyers found few residential openings downtown, and if they succeeded, they struggled to find nearby places to grab a coffee, go for a run, buy groceries or meet friends for cocktails.
Dan Gilbert, the chairman and founder of Bedrock, a Detroit-based real estate management and development firm, spearheaded an effort to solve the problem.
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