"America's Emptiest Cities, 2011 "

[GreenPartyVoter]

It’s no secret that the U.S. housing market has seen better days. From falling home values and impaired labor mobility, to backed-up inventories and a flood of foreclosures, there are countless ways that real estate affects the economy at large.

One of the unfortunate results of a bad housing market is an increase in vacant homes, which has grown by 43.8 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Homes can be vacant for various reasons, but they are defined as both rental inventory that are unoccupied and “for rent,” as well as homes that are unoccupied and up for sale. As of the 2010 Census, there were approximately 15 million vacant housing units in the country, with an 11.4 percent gross vacancy rate nationwide.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-emptiest-cities-2011.html

[KamaAina]

1. Sounds like we need to ReOccupy these places

march right out to these empty neighborhoods and squat 'em!

Hint: No. 1 on the list is Tucson, a college town with dry (if hot) climate and more liberal politics than the rest of AZ (think Gabby Giffords).

[SheilaT]

2. Tucson is the city I'm likeliest to call home,

since I went to high school there. Every so often I go on-line and look at houses for sale, and if I had more money and were of a landlord temperament, I'd buy some places there and become a landlord.

I also live several hundred miles away and so it wouldn't be a practical thing to do at all.

[hack89]

3. Take away people's private property? Really? nt

[Bill McBlueState]

4. lol

[KamaAina]

5. Oh, right. It is the banksters' private property.

Which they obtained by perfectly legal means, therefore their right to possession of it is sacrosanct. My bad.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[hack89]

8. No - there are people trying to sell or rent their private property.

didn't you read the link?

[ohheckyeah]

6. Detroit isn't on the list?

I'm surprised.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. It is. At the end of the article was another link. Detroit was on that one.

[BlueIris]

9. Depressing. Sad reality. nt

[Taverner]

10. Any surprise most of these are in red states?

This is what happens when people vote against their own interests

[former9thward]

11. It is never that simple.

With the exception of Indianapolis and Houston all of the cities named have far more Democratic voters than Republican.

[Taverner]

12. Not simple, no. But voting against your interests leads to these kinds of things.

Think Michigan in the 1980 election