Priming The Market To Bring Back The Neighborhood

Hundreds of American cities have high rates of poverty and unemployment and large amounts of vacant and abandoned properties. They also have very few municipal resources to meet all of their day-to-day challenges. In most of these cities housing dollars are spent in areas of greatest need, but some contend a better use of these limited funds would be to stimulate the market by targeting neighborhoods with fewer needs. Can this market-based solution to urban distress work?