We asked time and time again "what will we do with all these damn houses?"
Well, now we know.
Just tear them down.
US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
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38 comments:
It's been a while since you called us a bunch of science haters. What gives?
Bulldozing empty homes does not accomplish a damn thing, unless they mean to destroy the evidence of what has happened.
It is more of the same shameful, WASTEFUL, and selfish behavior that has been going on from start to finish regarding this particular bubble.
Think about how much time, energy, and resources goes into making a home from scratch. Think about how many people are in need of homes and would be willing to repair the ones in disrepair if only given the chance?
Nooo, somebody somewhere would rather (quite literally) see these homes burn to the ground before that happens. Waste, sheer waste of a human necessity on such a grand scale for the sake of maintaining high profits seems evil to me.
Is this the societal equivalent of cleaning out a teenager's room after they leave home? Can you say "Nanny State"? I knew you could.
Eat broccoli, whatever...
kocally ground gravel roads cost a tenth of the foreign bought with debt blacktop/tar AND employs locals with the profits..exclude national defence roads
Maricopa is an awesome little town.I love driving through there on my way to san diego.Some of the inner cities in phoenix could use some help.Time to tare down some of the ghettos and rebuild.
Disappointing. They should leave the houses so the market stays depressed for as long as possible.
'return the land to nature'...man this environmentlaist crap is just gone crazy.
"Lamaria said...
Think about how much time, energy, and resources goes into making a home from scratch. Think about how many people are in need of homes and would be willing to repair the ones in disrepair if only given the chance?"
You mean like those that gamed the system and lost?
Fuck them. DIE.
They could've given the homes away for free to working familes so they wouldn't have to slave away on 30 years of interest payments. The local governments could've given 10 years of tax abatements. The federal government could've given tax credit for rehabs but nooooo....let's just destroy all the housing stock so the slaves are forced to either pay high rents or pay interest to the zionist bankers.
So let me get this straight. They are BULLDOZING homes to limit supply and bring up prices?
Why not GIVE them away and let the new owners fix them up
At one time I looked at buying a house in Buffalo, NY. One of those turn of the 19th century victorians that needed a lot of work but had good bones. The local government refused to remove the tax liens and lower the taxes based on the new sales price. I think back taxes were almost $18k with annual RE taxes at $5k per year. Prevailing rents in the area were between $400 to $500 per month. The house was abandoned and worth maybe $8k as scrap. After that, I decided to leave Buffalo for Portland, Oregon and haven't looked back since. I bet the house is still sitting there and no one has paid the taxes. I would've been happy paying $800 per year in taxes but the city was too greedy or too inept. It was almost as if they wanted the neighborhood to fail.
RE: Buffalo... Your right, they DID want the area to fail. In fact, within the last 2 years there has been a MAJOR push to BULLDOZE the city! I'm talking about blocks at a time, gone overnight. This is happening in the west and east side of the inner city. Granted, not the best areas, but this is the solution to all the crime and drugs. Tear down the houses and put camaras on EVERY corner. BTW, the houses not torn down are being snapped up now, for cheap (Think $5000) by Muslims and with small fixes, being re-rented out as section 8.
"...Why not GIVE them away..."
answered perfectly by
"...I would've been happy paying $800 per year in taxes but the city was too greedy..."
A microcosm of our bigger troubles.
We are going ALL OUT to prop up prices/interfere with a free market.
Gotta laugh when I see people rejoice over low interest and a high purchase price.
Ever thought about the taxes/lack of margin for appreciation?
If appreciation was the mana that made the whole scam work, the scam cannot return until there is room(price-wise) for it.
Ahhh,
Goberment designed societies..
We all know how that works out..
To me this seems beyond evil.
Why don’t these morons just drop the friggin price to pennies?
I’m sure they’ll all be sold in less then a week to people that will engage in commerce in everyday living, that is how economies are created, not by a small group of bureaucrats.
It can not possibly be that a few shiny suits in Washington are smarter then the people.
Landfill Estates?
location, location, location...
NAR/REIC Ponzinomics: From Easy Street to Desolation Boulevard.
Who made-off with the profits??
What about the empty condo buildings in Scottsdale, Phoenix and Tempe?
pump and dump - literally and figuratively
You can't give these houses away and make the tax rate zero. Because the cost of providing all the city/county/state services, from trash pickup and fire protection to court systems and DMV, have to be payed, and right now there's no money.
This is a NATURAL and EXPECTED conequence of lowering taxes on the rich and just trying to charge everything to a credit card. It was predicted and warned, but the tax-cuts-for-the-rich crowed never listened.
Now, when all the inventory is either torn down or used up by immigration, and prices start to soar again, and everyone who didn't burden themselves with a still-overpriced house is again "priced out forever" the richest Americans will still be happy--because they'll still be getting their war profits and their health care system profits, and their tax cuts for the rich, because these will still be being put on the big federal charge card. And, they'll have their house "profits" back again too, only in the form of massive inflation.
unfathomable debt said...
‘Who made-off with the profits??’
OPEC?
"........The local government refused to remove the tax liens and lower the taxes based on the new sales price."
============================
I remember reading an article last year where they couldn't give away new homes in a development for $1 because of the outrageous property taxes. The tax gods were declaring them to be worth an arbitrary 350K-500K, refusing to budge a dime on assessed value, because that's what they sold for at the height of the bubble.
A hilarious follow-up article revealed that the county and the school board are now in a legal battle over clean up expenses. Seems the county sent in people to maintain the vacant properties so as to maintain adjacent homes values. The school board (Remember: Kids Come First) having no one to tax.....the bank fronting the development went belly up.....assessed the taxes for the vacant houses (no kids) against the county, claiming that since the county was maintaining them, the county was assuming “ownership” and therefore the county was responsible for the school property tax as well.
The judge hearing the case ruled that each side would reimburse the other for all expenses/taxes to date and “strongly suggested” both side find a mutual common ground for their dilemma, “OR HE WOULD!”
Result:
1.County clean up and repairs exceeded “teachers union dues” by $1.2 million (approx
350 homes, over three years of repairs, maintenance.)
2.School board is “vigorously appealing this travesty of justice” (Remember: Kids Come First) by an insensitive and
“out of touch" judge.
So in the end, the taxpayer ultimately has to pay for the slimeballs that work for the PTB to determine which side gets to stick the taxpayer for the bill anyway.
This would be funny as hell if it were not so nauseating!
Want to bet that their joint decision will be to demolish those vacant homes?
The only other alternative would be to fix realistic values on the homes, that would lower the damn taxes AND wipe out all pre-existing tax liens.
Of course that would be blasphemy!
Sounds like they just figured out a way to "make more land"! I thought that was impossible.
Now this is an idea whose time has come. Of course there will be the usual brainless knee-jerk naysayers who will stall the progress. It just makes good sense, though. Cut off the cancerous deadwood and focus resources on the healthy areas. Good idea, logical reasoning. It won't fly though, due to the aforesaid numbskulls. More's the pity.
Are illegals getting paid for this work also????
I submit that had illegal immigration been curbed, instead of hiring illegals in construction, that it would have been much more difficult, if possible at all, to over build.
In other words, illegals were massive enablers to the 'disease' of overbuilding and are directly responsbile, yet again, in another way, to the financial pains the USA has suffered.
I do miss me some Jim's Steakout.
Okay, this is crazy talk... we're talking about Flint, Michigan. Flint, Buick City, GM country, now with GM bankrupt and so many plants closed, you want to give incentives for people to live there??? and do what??? Get a nice house at a cheap price not pay taxes, and that'll help?? I'm speechless. It's like Hurricane Katrina people. There's no work and there's no money, and everyday the surrounding houses lose more value, gas goes up and the town gets more obsolete. What industry is going to move on in and save the day??? GM was on its knees and begged for help, and got it and now what??Maybe they'll make a reasonable car sometime in the future, but the regency, the money making ability of this area is gone.
So yeah, tear down houses, that end up having deranged squatters or criminals in them, quit paying for city services for people who just aren't there any more, and deal with reality of what just happened. How pitiful to complain about the loss of a house when so much more has been lost.
Only in Soviet Amerika can millions be homeless and the government start bulldozing millions of homes.
Yes, bulldoze the crackerjack boxes in Phoenix. It's not like they're going to need them, the population was grossly over estimated to begin with and people are moving out as it is.
There is only one reason why this is being done....to artificially restrict supply and stop house prices from dropping.
It is unbelievable that this could be allowed to happen when tent cities are filing with more and more homeless. But the pirates who run this country do not give a sh*t about anyone living here. It is all about continuing to fuel the "debt party".
Worse still, Obama came out today and said his "economic overhaul" consists of GIVING THE FED MORE POWER!!! I kid you not.
Obama has nothing to do with this, just like his predecessor GWB, he is a shill whose handlers are the bankster/FED/WS criminals. They pull the string...he talks.
The very source of the cancer that is killing our country...being given more POWER!!!
The FED are an unelected and unaccountable organization with ties to European influences (e.g. Bank of England).
Giving the FED (i.e. Bank of England et al) more power guarantees that America will continue to be sucked dry by forces beyond our control.
Emmy,
If you believe that jobs and economies are created by the goberment or large corporations then you are correct.
But the way it really works is economy and jobs are created by people,
Say 100 houses are given to 100 families you immediately need food stores, pharmacies, clothing outlets, repair people, car mechanics, doctors, dentists, computers, books, schools, and everything else any other community in this country needs and builds.
It is a shame to see valuable assets being destroyed.
Mike Oxlong said...
Sounds like they just figured out a way to "make more land"! I thought that was impossible.
HAHAHA. Bravo Mike.
Keith I think that one deserves a blog post.
I can't wait to tell a Realtor that they ARE making more land.
Why doesn't Acorn or Habitat for Humanity buy these homes up and give them away to the poor?
Fixing a house is definitely cheaper than building a brand new one.
Furthermore, HUD shouldn't be using Section 8 to subsidize people to live in high end areas of California and Florida. HUD should be using funds to repopulate depressed cities of the rust belt.
Rent was reasonable 20 years ago in Socal until Section 8 came along. Subsidized housing only drive rents higher. It's the average Joe who works just enough to make ends meet but too proud to ask for govt aid who gets hammered.
Cleveland needs to get bulldozed. The city's population almost reached 1 million decades ago, it will drop below 400,000 soon. Cuyahoga county is bankrupt and totally corrupt, like Cook county, IL just on a smaller scale.
Now its bulldozing houses, but during the Great Depression they were stacking model A's and burning them because of over production. I saw an article and picture of this on the net, but I can't find it now.
Anyway, it will solve the problem of squarters and maintance to just turn back the land into forest or open space. However, I would prefer the land to be used to grow food so we don't have to import so much produce from other countries.
Additionally, agriculture is what California was known for in the past...we should return to it. And instead of illegals working the fields, it should be ex-mortgage brokers and realtors tilling the soil planting and harvesting crops of fruit and vegetables.
Furthermore, HUD shouldn't be using Section 8 to subsidize people to live in high end areas of California and Florida. HUD should be using funds to repopulate depressed cities of the rust belt.
Rent was reasonable 20 years ago in Socal until Section 8 came along. Subsidized housing only drive rents higher. It's the average Joe who works just enough to make ends meet but too proud to ask for govt aid who gets hammered.
June 15, 2009 10:28
Great comment here!
Section 8 ruins once nice neighborhoods and turns them into ghettos quickly! I really hate section 8! I know there is the ideal situation of a women who is working very hard and has 1 and I MEAN 1 kid and needs some assistance since its so hard to live in places like Florida and Cali, however the more common case is there is a substitute teacher with 3 kids working part time and gets a $1150 voucher to live in a super nice condo or even a nice house for FREE!!! For Free!! On top of the fact it's for free she feels enititled to think the place has to absolutely perfect too! (she has been watching to many episodes of CRIBS) WTF!? She had over 40 pairs of shoes! She NEEDED a walk-in closet big enough for her shoes! She drives a newer FOrd expoder thinks shopping every week is the way of life. THis shit has to stop! There is no end to this! There are 3 generations of people on Section 8 around here! They know how to game the system and it is easier than working FOR SHO! Yes she is black! Raynla don't get fired up over this comment like you have before on me. It's not my fault she is black!
rich in fl!
This is an idiot plan. In Philadelphia, as they bulldoze the housing they will need to "relocate" families (some of the worst of society-uneducated, drug addicted, poor and stupid)
Where to? Ha Ha-to Joe the workingman's neighborhood that's where. Goodbye Joe. Another neighborhood that was once viable will be trashed and need to be bulldozed 10 years down the road.
Very clever! Destroy everything!
More White flight, leaving the poor behind.
Anonymous,
What happens when an industry moves out is that the 100 people don't have money, so they don't pay for anything except a ticket out. There's no outstanding natural resource, there's no majestic waterway,at least Buffalo has Niagra Falls, there's no touristy attraction, really AutoWorld how lame that was- and 100 people do not decide to make an economy..they join economies...
We are living it here in SE Michigan. Maybe alternative energy will take off, maybe it'll be potato farming that'll save the day or give it enough time, lumber from forests that reclaim their space.
Is it a shame that houses are to be lost? Sure, and the jobs and the money and the stability and all that other stuff..that's a shame too. Market forces. Literally. So it goes.
Section 8 - I used to think it was an admirable program, providing assistance to poor families who need help. But in the cold, hard reality of human nature, it fails horribly. I lived in a complex in Howard County, Maryland - a fairly upscale, expensive county between Baltimore and DC. I paid $1300 to rent a one-bedroom apartment and discovered that 40% of the tenants in that complex were Section 8! They were paying a small fraction of the rent I had to pay. Obese women in stretch shorts and flip flops hung outside my door with their rowdy children as I trudged home from my job, working to earn the rent that they didn't have to pay. Damn, that made me mad. And a run down cottage behind my parent's nice suburban home is now being rented out to a Section 8 family who are trashy beyond belief. They actually burn their garbage in their yard every night causing clouds of smoke to descend on my parents' home and the county has no regulations against it. I hate 8!
"Anyway, it will solve the problem of squarters and maintance to just turn back the land into forest or open space. However, I would prefer the land to be used to grow food so we don't have to import so much produce from other countries.
Additionally, agriculture is what California was known for in the past...we should return to it. And instead of illegals working the fields, it should be ex-mortgage brokers and realtors tilling the soil planting and harvesting crops of fruit and vegetables."
I want to tackle this.
California is a major agricultural force RIGHT NOW, even if its main product is actually marijuana. There is no shortage of land, specifically agricultural land in the U.S and hundreds of tons of food are left to rot or are intentionally destroyed. The reasons why we import food have nothing at all to do with /land/ as you describe.
We will always have a nice chunk of Agri-workers as illegal immigrants because they work for slave wages amid other reasons that will never change. Never. I am not entirely sure where you have gotten these ideas Goldbug.
As for maintaining property and dealing with squatters well duh, its better to have someone in the home and responsible/accountable for it. The reason these homes are being demolished are purely to kill inventory and a dash of population manipulation.
The idea of mega corporations being responsible for the creation and well-being of a city is disturbing and only jives with history if what you actually mean to say is: Kingdoms.
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