According to Forbes Magazine the Capital District is tied with Springfield, MA for most vacant houses/rentals. We have hit the top ten in something! We have passed Buffalo on the race to the bottom.
Metrograft is really working well! First sales tax receipts tank then housing hits the skids. This means there is both an outmigration and more housing than demand. Schenectady already has the dubious distinction of top 3 empty neighborhoods in the State. Would love to see Schenectady separated from Albany where huge State employment fills housing demand. We would make top 3. Keep re-electing the same "leaders"..
CAPITAL REGION Region included on abandoned cities list BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
Residential vacancy rates are significantly higher this year than a year ago in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The rate of increase was such that Forbes.com listed the area as sixth on its list of America’s Abandoned Cities. Kansas City, Mo., ranked first. The Census Bureau’s figures show that rental vacancies for the second quarter of 2009 more than doubled from a year earlier, jumping to 7.3 percent from 2.7 percent in the Capital Region. The homeowner vacancy rate in the area nearly tripled — to 2.7 percent from 1 percent — for the same period, according to census data. Still, compared with other parts of the nation, Capital Region vacancy rates are low. In Kansas City, for example, rental vacancy rates rose from 11.9 percent to 15 percent over the past year; homeowner vacancy rates nearly doubled, from 2.1 percent to 3.8 percent, according to Forbes.com. In Miami, ranked 8th, the rental vacancy rate rose to 12.7 percent from 11.4 percent a year ago, and homeowner vacancy stands at 5.6 percent, up from 3.8 percent last year. Forbes.com ranks the Capital Region higher on the abandoned cities list than some cities with worse vacancy rates because the rates here increased so sharply — even though they are still better than the national average. The average homeowner vacancy rate in the country’s 75 largest metro areas improved from 3 percent to 2.7 percent, while the rental vacancy rate rose slightly to 10.2 percent from 10 percent a year ago, said Forbes.com. A slow housing market and the recession may account for this area’s rising vacancy rates, according to James Ader, chief executive for Greater Capital Association of Realtors. “It could be the housing economy. The market is slow and [residents] have had to move on for economic reasons, or move on to the next home without selling this one, because it takes longer to sell your home,” Ader aid. .......................>>>...........>>>>.........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00503&AppName=1
Dying to hear Metrograft, Death Ray's and Son of Sam's take on this disgrace.
More proof {as if you needed it} on the complete failure of "the arts' to stimulate anything. When they can't fill empty Jay St storefronts-they put in "the arts" for no rent and no sales taxes generation. Sheeple need to wake up and demand an end to all taxpayer funding "arts" in this County. Or expect more empty blocks and houses.