Politics | 02/23/2009 12:25 pm
Las Vegas, Atlanta Top List of Most Abandoned Cities
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Cities like Las Vegas, Detroit and Atlanta are being abandoned as people are forced to leave their homes.
These cities have fallen victim to the economic malaise hitting much of the country. But they’re getting hit the hardest when it comes to rental and homeowner vacancy rates, and a general bust of any remaining industries here in the U.S. ABCNews.com and Forbes report that of the 75 largest metropolitan areas in the country, these cities are at the top of the list of cities becoming ghost towns — well, in comparison to what they used to be at least. Lots in Vegas that were purchased for billions are now sitting undeveloped and worth only half the purchasing price. Other sore areas include Greensboro, NC, Dayton, Ohio, Indianapolis, IN, and Florida cities like Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. But home sales are actually going up in cities like Phoenix and San Diego. Meanwhile, cities like Boston, New York and Honolulu are still going strong. You wouldn’t have to twist our arms to move to Hawaii!
Are you a big fan of Denver, Orlando or Seattle? They’re among the nation’s most popular cities to live.
Read more about: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cities, Development, Economy, Housing, Industry, Las Vegas, Mortgage, New York, News, Recession, U.S.
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My brother was transferred from Atlanta to the Seattle area about a year and a half ago. When he first bought in Atlanta real estate was booming. When he sold his home in a popular subdivision he barely broke even from the money he put into finishing the basement, landscaping etc.
Even before the boom and bust cycle I could see Atlanta being over built. It is a wonderful city but the suburbs stretch for miles beyond I-285 encompassing towns that used to be communities of their own. People swarmed to Atlanta and other large cities as a Mecca for jobs. To find affordable housing they drove further from the city centers. With the massive layoffs and cutbacks people picked up stakes to move on to greener pastures. Most didn’t want to leave but had no choice if it took two incomes to maintain their homes. In many cases a high interest or ARM mortgage prevented them from building much equity or having money to maintain the home until it could sell.
Let’s not also forget that some of this boom and bust was spurred on by developmental greed. Nice older neighborhoods were bulldozed to make room for huge homes on smaller lots. Of course the local strip malls with grocery stores and restaurants grew right along with them. It took well paying jobs to fuel this find of growth. All of this occurred when developers knew Atlanta was in a drought situation with low lake levels for the supplies of water.
Every city and the developers in it should be planning for a future where people can access public transit from affordable housing. We can’t forget that as more of our population ages it will be harder for people to maintain these neighborhoods on fixed incomes.
Atlanta is a resilient city with amenities that will recover from this latest downturn. Like most things it will take time. It will take a new way of thinking to make certain the new growth is sustainable.
rates….and America recovered….without a stimulus package.
By deber B on 02/23/2009 4:30 pmWhen will you accept this has never happened before ?
Its money concerntarated at "the top," as usual. And, in Georgia, they can auction off homes after 1 missed mortage payment, at least that’s what was viewed on national TV last month. Is it therefore any wonder . . . ?
Homelessness in America shocks our foreign visitors, and it should shock us, too.
Bravo, Shirly, but it’s the same reason that the Epsicopal Church of America had a serious "fit" when the Rt. Rev. Bishop Walker of DC let the homeless sleep in the catherdral one friged winter night. Sociopathic behavior - no compassion, as Uri Bronfenbrenner once told me to watch out for. Worse, not a modicum of conscience, as one we now know and see living in his palacial suite in NY who ripped off billions from his own investors, another blithly autorotated off the White House Lawn last month (intersting term "autorotate").
People who do not care about others, never will care. We have to step up and fix this and not count on them to ever budge - they simply cannot; it’s the degree of mental illness.
Heading to watch POTUS and Twitter, but IMHO I believe it began with the mobility of the populace in the late 60s, when the nuclear family became separated. Corporate expansion moved people hither and yon, rather like the Industrial Age moved the males into the cities, leaving the wives at home to fend for everything, kids, farm, production, et al - whicle the "company" provided all the men’s needs, equipment, etc (leaving women with no such advantages). Same with 21 C moving families around the world - when young couples begin having children, I noticed no relatives around them (to learn give-n-take from in stressful times), hence no role models for early adulthood and parenting, either (no experience-base) - leaving the couples totally dependant on one another (de facto co-dependancy). Thus, eventually one "tired" and shifted, collapsing the unit.
In short, only option was to wall off feelings, to survive, and "move on." Hence planting ‘seeds’ of sociopathic behaviour. Its rampant today, as is insanity - even Congress keeps trying the same things over and over again that do not work, like Iraq, and war, period. It is nuts. Scary.
In our site psych reviewer’s list of criminal tendencies, one of us here remarked how like high level MOC those traits are. She is absolutely right on target. Therefore, there is no longer any sense to trying to cultivate others to help issues, and needs, just do it - or lose the times, and lives, hoping and waiting.