America's Foreclosure Ghost Towns




Huffington Post

On the cover of their most recent issue, Fortune declares the "return of Real Estate" to be upon us. With the national housing market wrecked by low sales and marred by high foreclosure rates, the optimistic sentiment seems odd. Have they not seen the scores of empty homes?

Across America, these abandoned homes have formed into something more disturbing: ghost towns. In Las Vegas, a city that The Economist calls the "foreclosure capital of America," over eighty percent of mortgages are underwater. Detroit, another declining city, has watched the city's population drop 25 percent over the last decade. Modesto, California -- just 90 miles east of San Francisco -- has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Even one small town in New York have watched property values come crashing down.

In February, new home sales have plunged to record lows, down 28 percent from the year prior, according to new government data.

Economists and analysts, however, think things may actually get worse. According to Lender Processing Services, around 6.9 million homeowners were either delinquent or in foreclosure proceedings through February, and 1 in every 577 housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, finds data provider RealtyTrac.

Nationwide, empty houses are leading to empty neighborhoods, especially in Arizona, California, Nevada and Michigan. The photos below show a few examples of the results: once vital communities reduced to empty living rooms and overgrown weeds.


Bonita Springs, Florida



The empty driveways in this satellite photo are testaments to the astoundingly high number of vacant homes in Bonita Springs and across Florida. Of the town's 23,455 total housing units, 8,522 houses were vacant last year.


Cairo, Illinois



This Cairo, Illinois photo from Associated Press shows one example of why the state was in the top 10 states for foreclosure activity in February


Hawthorne, California




Los Angeles remains in the top five foreclosure cities in the U.S.


Cleveland, Ohio




Thanks, in part, to the housing crisis, Cleveland has experienced the third highest population decrease in America over the past decade. 81,588 people have left the city. Boarded-up houses like these seem to be all that's left of the many families who've homes have been foreclosed.


Las Vegas, Nevada




This unfinished housing development is just one example of why Las Vegas is called "the foreclosure capital of America." Last year, a tenth of the city's homes were foreclosed or in the process of foreclosure. Getty photographers Spencer Platt and Ethan Miller documented the city's decline.


Phoenix, Arizona




After Nevada, Arizona has the highest rate of foreclosures in America. Foreclosure-riddled ghost towns in Arizona and elsewhere are often made up of a variety of vacant homes: foreclosures, auctions, bank owned homes and unfinished developments are a common sight in Phoenix's suburbs.
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