Empty Homes Dot Oakland County's Upscale Suburbs

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http://www.detnews.com/article/20110...pscale-suburbs

I am not posting this to start another tiresome anti-suburbs debate, or to ignite another notoriously irritating city-vs-suburbs thread, but I want to hear what people think about the trouble some communities might be in going forward, how best to solve coming problems, and if there is a silver-lining.

Now that even well-to-do communities like the Bloomfields and Birmingham have 10%+ residential vacancy rates, what is going to happen to the region?

For right now, these communities are able to maintain vacant properties and keep up appearances, but as these cities become more cash-strapped, the level of upkeep and maintenance will probably dwindle.

If a street has 20 houses on it, and two become vacant, it's likely surrounding home values have gone down. At some point, your neighbors might get fed up and walk away from their mortgage and now you have 3 vacant homes. An investor might buy a fourth home through a short-sale and rent it to a tenant who doesn't care about the property. A year later, the city might stop maintaining the three vacant properties. Now, you have what used to be an exclusive street with three unmaintained vacant homes that are starting to look ragged, and a renter for a neighbor who is letting his house go to shit. Because more residents have starting leaving and property values have sunk, the tax base shrinks, city services are getting worse, and more people begin to leave. The city tries in vain to raise taxes on those who are left, but low and behold, it exacerbates the problem by causing more flight. Local businesses start to dry up and leave town creating vacant storefronts and further declining property values. All the while, you're sitting there and your home's value continues to free-fall. Eventually, you start wondering when you should leave.

The hypothetical above sounds a lot like what has been happening in Detroit for the last 50 years. It's the cycle of death for cities and towns. How are places like the suburbs going to deal with these issues as they happen? I think it is clear that the early symptoms are setting in. Obviously, Detroit did not cope well or address these problems adequately. So, the drawing board is ripe for ideas on how to reverse these trends. This region can't afford to lose anymore ground, especially its flagship pockets of wealth and success.