<p>[America’s</a> Emptiest Cities, 2011 - Yahoo! Real Estate](<a href=“http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-emptiest-cities-2011.html]America’s”>http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-emptiest-cities-2011.html)</p>
<p>I am kind of surprised to see Indianapolis and Atlanta on the list…</p>
<p>Why are these cities on the list?</p>
<p>A poor choice of words on the title. It shows cities with the most vacant residential properties. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the population has declined. Familes and singles can double or triple up on their living arrangements which means that the population stays the same but fewer housing units are filled. That’s my take on Atlanta. I don’t know much about Indianapolis.</p>
<p>Yep, just as I suspected, our area is on the list. :(</p>
<p>well…abasket…you do live in a pretty depressed area…</p>
<p>I am surprised about Atlanta…</p>
<p>Our town has seen companies moving back in and some of the empty corporate buildings are starting to get tenants. We have a new airport access road that will be done soon and we have a huge new premium outlets mall that should be done next spring that will bring about 800 jobs to the area. I’ve read about some hotels coming in too.</p>
<p>The surrounding cities have seen an influx of small tech companies moving into old mill buildings. These mill buildings have older city homes nearby and many were refurbished or turned into condos during the housing boom. The area is attractive to some startups that want proximity to Boston without the high-costs of doing business in Massachusetts, and easy access to an airport and low personal taxes.</p>
<p>BCEagle91…is there enough housing in the area to house the workers…or are new homes going to be built?</p>
<p>True Ohio and as this report shows, the particular area where I live is depressed…but it doesn’t help to see it “score” high on this report!</p>
<p>yeah…</p>
<p>I have not studied this, but I was surprised to learn that Tuscon and Atlanta are on the list. During the “boom years”, I frequently heard that Atlanta was a very good city to relocate to for finding work. I would have thought that Tucson and Atlanta would be great cities to live in, if for no other reason than the weather (assuming that a sizable population does appreciate snow country). I guess that BCEagle’s post #2 might explain part of the reason that these cities are on the list.</p>
<p>I am surprised that Las Vegas is not on the list. Thoughts?</p>
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<p>I was in one of the areas for a race recently and I saw a lot of professionals walking to their homes from the mills nearby (it’s about a 1/2 mile walk). The homes looked nice from the outside and the cars in the parking areas looked like what you would expect from people out of college for a few years. I don’t see any space for additional construction. The areas away from the mills are more depressed - there is a lot of cheap multifamily rental housing further away. I do not expect a real estate construction boom in our area. I do like companies moving in and providing good wage jobs though.</p>
<p>Metro Atlanta has a substantial oversupply of housing, both single-family buildings and apartments. Residents with underwater mortgages have abandoned their homes in droves in the city and the suburbs. They say that metro Atlanta was once the most rapidly developed [urbanized] area in history. Areas that were very small towns and farmland at the start of the 1980s were endless subdivisions by 1990. Now the Great Recession demands that the Pied Piper must be paid for all that reckless building, including the ghastly superhighways and exurban shopping malls.</p>
<p>Our company had a relocation program back in the 1980s. They covered up to $50K on the loss of home value and covered complete relocation expenses. The target town was Alpharetta, GA where we built a large facility and were rapidly staffing it. Budget cuts killed the relocation program and we stayed in New England. Of course things worked out well up here and I prefer colder temperatures so I’m glad I didn’t go down there.</p>
<p>The question, though, is the population stable?</p>
<p>@northeastmom</p>
<p>Forbes rated Las Vegas #2 on its emptiest city list back in March ([America’s</a> Emptiest Cities - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/02/orlando-las-vegas-business-real-estate-emptiest-cities.html]America’s”>America's Emptiest Cities)). I imagine that if the current list was a bit longer we would have earned a place on it. </p>
<p>Our real estate market is pretty dismal right now. Highest foreclosure rate in the nation. Greater than 70% of mortgages under water (no, that is not a typo). Housing prices down to levels last seen in the mid 90s.</p>
<p>It will recover…eventually. I can still remember the early 80’s housing bubble in Houston. My friend called me urged me to invest in Houston, the home prices went up so fast, he was flipping houses and making millions with little equity. I have not heard from him for more than 30 years since.</p>
<p>That story mimics the situation in Las Vegas a few years ago.</p>
<p>I was surprised that Phoenix was not on the list. There are whole housing developments in the greater Phoenix area that have not been occupied. It’s awful.</p>
<p>I will respectfully disagree that Las Vegas’ situation is similar to that of Houston in the 80’s… If I recall properly,Houston’s real estate market crashed because of oil…it was an isolated cause…Las Vegas has overbuilt, and that real estate boom was fueled by very lax lending standards…the jb market is weak, and is centered around the Casino industry,which is getting worse day by day with the prolification of casinos all over the country…</p>
<p>Vegas always seems to weather the storms,but I believe the glory days are long gone, and without any big industry to provide well paying jobs, real estate is in bad shape for quite a long time</p>
<p>There are varying definitions of ‘empty’. I was recently in Hartford, CT. The downtown was what I’d define as ‘empty’. Absolutely no stores, no shopping, just a few restaurants. The downtown was so vacant on a Saturday afternoon that gangs of ‘kids’ were doing skateboarding tricks in the middle of the main street. It was a depressing place to be.</p>
<p>I imagine that Sentosa has taken some of Las Vegas’ business.</p>
<p>I remember reading a while ago that commericial real estate would soon be the next domino to fall in our national mortgage crisis. What’s the outlook on that front? Anyone know?</p>
<p>New construction in the commercial real estate field is terrible…hard to get loans…</p>
<p>Prices are down in commercial real estate in most areas…prime real commercial real estate A buildings have held up well…</p>
<p>Apartments are doing ok in many areas…the old saying “real estate is local” applies…</p>
<p>I talked to a friend of mine yesterday…and he says he has two friends that haven’t made any mortgage payments for 18 months… Banks haven’t contacted either person.</p>
<p>I agree that you don’t read much about commercial real estate problems.</p>