Every week it seems that there are more headlines about teens partying in empty homes, people looking to make money by selling scrap metal pulling copper wires and pipes out of empty homes, and just senseless vandalism. Far too many of these vacant homes are also becoming crime scenes as prostitutes and drug addicts and dealers are using them to ply their trades.
The drive for homeowners to purchase bigger and "better" homes well beyond their financial means is one of the suggested causes of our current economic climate and resultant real estate crash. As a result, there is a plethora of architectural behemoths on the market with no one interested in buying them, particularly not for the price that owners are looking to sell them for.
From Seattle to St. Petersburg, and Sacramento to Nashville, tent cities are appearing in surprising areas. No longer connected just with major urban centers, modern shanty towns are popping up in more rural areas and on the outskirts of cities.
It doesn’t take much to feel little more than gloom about the prospect of real estate as an investment tool. You can even begin to wonder how much you may ultimately lose if you have to move. However, recent indicators seem to suggest that a turn around is happening even as some housing prices continue to decline.
Understandably, home ownership is lowest in areas where the cost of owning a home is highest and the biggest drops have occurred in the states that have been hardest hit with foreclosures. Vacancy rates have risen as home ownership has fallen; there were approximately 100,000 more homes sitting vacant at the end of 2009 than there were only mere months earlier.
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