This week, we're sharing a new project that we're working on heading into 2016 - tracking ownership change across the City of Detroit. Through our work, we know that updated property ownership information is invaluable to neighborhoods and community members in Detroit. Over the next year, we are going to be updating our ownership data in Detroit on a weekly basis and tracking every single change in Site Control, which is now available to everyone interested in collecting and mapping data.

This analysis is made possible through Property Transfer Affadavits. Currently, when ownership change occurs the City of Detroit requires the new property owner to file the property transfer affidavit with the City of Detroit's Assessors Office within 45 days, or face a maximum penalty of $200. Below, you'll find a map of property transfer affidavits registered with the City of Detroit from December 7th - 11th. This data is coming directly from the City of Detroit's BS&A Property Portal.

We categorized properties by owner type, distinguishing between publicly owned (owned by the city or a land bank), privately owned, and bank-owned properties. Out of a total of 1436 properties, 514 are publicly-owned, 916 are private, and 6 are owned by banks.

The Detroit Land Bank is the top transferer this week, with 428 properties. Of these, 404 are vacant lots, which leads us to believe that the city is catching up on transfers from earlier this year.. The second top transferee, DETROIT 123 LLC, purchased all of their properties through the Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction under the name Gideon Pfeffer.

You can download the data in the map interface by clicking "List" and then "Download CSV". We've added both Motor City Mapping data and Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Data. Please download it and check it out.