Subdivisions Becoming Ghost Towns

13 October 2008 - 2:00pm

As foreclosures spread throughout the suburbs, subdivisions are rapidly becoming modern-day ghost towns, according to this column from The Seattle Times.

"All told, 51 lots went into foreclosure. Now the 28-acre Hidden Ridge subdivision really is a mirage. It's got new lamp posts lining freshly paved cul-de-sacs. But no homes, only weeds and cockeyed, rusting for-sale signs."

"'They won't sell now at any price,' Bennett said. 'Not without giving them away.'"

"It strikes me that spots like this, common now in Vegas and Phoenix and San Diego, are our modern-day ghost towns. Abandoned not due to migration or new inventions like the automobile, as it was with the old ghost towns of the West. But due to frenzy."

Source: The Seattle Times, October 11, 2008
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Even if the report overestimates the costs by a factor of two and underestimates the tax-benefit by a similar amount, the conclusion would be pretty much the same: destination resorts cost local government and taxpayers money.