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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But why not just require basic accessibility, such as no-step entrances and wider doorways? It seems off the mark to argue that it's inappropriate to place this kind of requirement on homebuilders.