On any given night there's about 444,000 people experiencing homelessness... well acording to a study done in 1996. Which brings up a good question - Apparently 1996 was the last time anyone actually cared enough to count America's homeless..
So given this info about the homeless problem it makes you wonder, how many homes are currently empty due to the finical disaster. Surprisingly enough, 13% of all U.S. homes are currently vacant.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- High residential vacancies are killing many housing markets, as foreclosed homes sit on the market and depress sale prices and property values.
And it's only getting worse: The national vacancy rate crept up to just over 13% according to last week's decennial census report. That's up from 12.1% in 2007.
"More vacant homes equal more downward pressure on home prices," said Brad Hunter, chief economist for Metrostudy, a real estate information provider.
Maine had the highest proportion of empty housing stock, at 22.8%. Other states with gluts of empty houses included Vermont (20.5%), Florida (17.5%), Arizona (16.3%) and Alaska (15.9%).
And it makes you wonder, why aren't they being put to good use? I mean.. we have a homeless problem that hasn't been checked since 1996, and we have a lot of people-less homes that need filling...
You picking up what I'm putting down? I mean, the banks are basically holding onto the houses to keep the write downs off the balance sheets and to keep prices artificially inflated, cause lord knows there's no one out there that can actually afford to buy these in the secondary market...
Well, there is. But the rich already have summer, spring and fall homes. No need to pick up another one or two in the suburbs. Wouldn't want to slum it up now.
It really has got to be a real boon for squatters though. The banks can't possibly check up on all those houses. Especially when you get out to the boonies. No way are they going to bother with that. Then again, I could be wrong I mean, Rochester's sending swat teams to evict a family with seven kids. also arrested the neighbor in her pajamas for complaining about police overkill
The banks should just pour bleach in the A/C duct and glue all the windows shut. Because you know they're trying to calculate a profitable way to effectively lease their houses to private prison corporations. Just imagine them handing out memos with the word synergy in the title with the clipart of little smiley guys rattling a can against their lush two car port track home cell bars.
On the bright side, those squatters who don't have swat teams with guns in their face can just tear the place apart for the copper. Think of all the scrap metal just laying around.
I'm pretty sure someday people will marvel how 19th century ghost towns are still standing while 21st century Americans were content to live in stucco-painted drywall and Spackle hovels functionally incapable of standing upright without constant heavy maintenance.
A future archeologist will be awed as she steps through the ashen remains of what must have been a stately prince's adobe, poking at the frames of its many windows, not two of which match -- a testament to its regal splendor.
"See here this digital reconstruction of what life must have been like for this early 21st century suburban-type house based on evidence excavated from subsratum A15. Notice how the windows here [points] and here [points] are quite different in style, as are the balustrade and lighting device seen at top. Though little is known as to their exact origin, we can conclude that the occupants must have scavenged them from the remains of other houses that had fallen into disrepair or, I believe the term was, foreclosure."
I looked out my window the other night and saw a half completed strip mall, beggers on the street, a cop car ticketing a car off the highway, smog, no stars, drug dealers, busted street lamps and all around nastiness. "Glory... Glory," I thought to myself.
This is truly the American dream.
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