There are more vacant properties now than there were at the height of the foreclosure crisis in the United States, and many vacant properties are hanging around in growing cities with a shortage of affordable housing.
"Despite a shortage of affordable housing in many parts of the country, there are more than 6 million vacant, unused housing units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey," writes Amy Scott.
"That’s more than at the height of the foreclosure crisis, and it doesn’t count empty lots or commercial buildings."
Scott's article starts as a dispatch from the recent Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference, held recently in Atlanta, which can be held up as an example of the under-the-radar challenge of property vacancies in many parts of the country. The surprising persistence of property vacancies in a growing Atlanta especially exemplifies how effective responses to property vacancies will require actions specific to local economic context.
FULL STORY: The vacancy crisis is far from over
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research