vacant homes

6 Stories

Wary of Vacant Homes, Florida Realtors Pack Heat

More real estate agents are applying for concealed weapons permits

(Newser) - Real estate agent: a dangerous job? In Florida, some think that it is. Many of the homes on the market are vacant, and therefore a possible haven for crime—and as a result more and more real estate agents are considering packing heat. "You don't know what's waiting for...

11% of US Homes Vacant
 11% of US Homes Vacant 


11% of US Homes Vacant

Prices set to fall even further

(Newser) - The latest census figures on the housing market make for grim reading for homeowners. Some 18.4 million homes are vacant—11% of the nation's housing supply—and home ownership rates are dropping rapidly, CNBC reports. Prices are down year-over-year in all 28 major metropolitan areas tracked by the Wall ...

Don't Hate Me: I'm Just Here to Clean Up
 Don't Hate Me: 
 I'm Just Here 
 to Clean Up 
FORECLOSURE FRONTLINES

Don't Hate Me: I'm Just Here to Clean Up

Clearing the detritus of owners' dreams from bank-owned homes

(Newser) - Cindy Reid doesn’t want you to think she and her boss—and boyfriend—are the “bad guys.” But it is difficult when her man is the one “you never want to see pull up to your house. He has eyes that go flat when you offer ...

Squatters Find Refuge in Foreclosed Homes

Activists move homeless families into bank-owned properties

(Newser) - Advocacy groups around the country frustrated by the lack of affordable housing and the surplus of empty properties are moving homeless families into foreclosed houses, reports the New York Times reports. Groups like Miami's Take Back the Land screen "tenants" for mental illness and drug problems and require them...

Housing Crash Spawns Ghost Subdivisions

Residents live solitary lives in half-built developments

(Newser) - The housing bust has left ghost towns scattered across the nation, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a tour of half-built or largely empty developments, the paper finds residents who moved in early, only to find themselves leading lonely lives surrounded by eerily deserted homes and weed-strewn lots. One woman...

Homeless Look to Foreclosures
Homeless Look to Foreclosures

Homeless Look to Foreclosures

Spike in empty homes provides convenient, albeit sometimes dangerous, shelter

(Newser) - As the nation's spate of foreclosures leaves more people homeless, more homeless people are finding shelter in those newly abandoned buildings, the AP reports. The stock of foreclosed homes in hard-hit areas may well outnumber people on the street, leading many to chance arrest or a run-in with drug dealers...

6 Stories