American Ghost Towns of the 21st Century

[aggiesal]

Source: Yahoo News

Monday, April 11, 2011

by Douglas A. McIntyre

There are several counties in America, each with more than 10,000 homes, which have vacancy rates above 55%. The rate is above 60% in several.

Most people who follow unemployment and the housing crisis would expect high vacancy rates in hard-hit states including Nevada, Florida and Arizona. They were among the fastest growing areas from 2000 to 2010. Disaster struck once economic growth ended.

Palm Coast, Fla., Las Vegas and Cape Coral, Fla., were all among the former high fliers. Many large counties which have 20% or higher occupancy rates are in these same regions. Lee County, Fla., Yuma County, Ariz., Mohave County, Ariz., and Osceola, Fla., each had a precipitous drop in home prices and increases in vacancy rates as home buyers disappeared when the economy went south.

Data from states and large metropolitan areas do not tell the story of how much the real estate disaster has turned certain areas in the country into ghost towns. Some of the affected regions are tourist destinations, but much of that traffic has disappeared as the recession has caused people to sell or desert vacation homes and delay trips for leisure. This makes these areas particularly desolate when tourists are not around.

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Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/112463/american-ghost-towns-21st-century-247wallst

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30 Years for RayGunomics, and this is what you get.

[William769]

1. I live in Lee County Florida.

Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres are both definitely ghost towns.

[iwishiwas]

2. 3 out of 10 in the story are counties in WI-they all went for Prosser!!!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2011/by_county/WI_Supreme_Court_0405.html?SITE=AP&SECTION=POLITICS&wwparam=1302523514&wwparam=1302524116&wwparam=1302524718&wwparam=1302525320

[aggiesal]

4. Are you serious? ...

Why people continue to vote against their own best interest, is beyond me.

I remember back in 1980, I told a friend of mine that voted for Reagan, that
if we continue to vote for the likes of Reagan, in 30 years our country is
going to be in deep trouble.

[Snoutport]

3. Very interesting article. No mention that many of these states have crazy politicians that scare aw

away tourists. I won't travel to tea party country and I know I'm not the only one. I'm also boycotting johnsonville sausages, norther quilted (you have any idea how hard it is to buy toilet papers that isn't kochroach paper?!). I did notice that Brawny papertowels were suddenly on sale...maybe they've had to lower prices due to boycotts?

Republican governors are not going to let out real numbers in tourist declines...or blame it on the economy...but, even if just 3% or 5% of their usual visitors go somewhere else...