 | Daily Real Estate News | May 2, 2008
Unsold Homes Hurt New Communities
New subdivisions with pricey homes are falling into crime-ridden decay because so many of the properties are empty and unsold, according to a recent report in The Atlantic Monthly, which looks specifically at communities in Charlotte, N.C., Sacramento, Calif., and Lee County, Florida.
Areas hurt the most seem to be in far-suburbs that were just being developed as the housing slowdown took hold.
"There are more empty houses the farther out you go," says Jack Connor of Alliance Appraisal & Consulting Services in Central Florida. "I was down in Kissimmee, at a development on Lake Toho, and it is a ghost town."
Arthur Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, predicts a glut of 22 million "large-lot" detached homes by 2025, with large lot defined as one-sixth of an acre and up. He says if no more homes were built in the suburbs, there would still be too many of them 17 years from now.
Source: The Orlando Sentinel (05/01/2008)
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