Vacant Properties Resources Index

The goal of reusing a vacant property is to find uses that are realistic and provide the greatest benefit to the property, its immediate surroundings, and the broader community. In practice, this means navigating the tension between the community needs and what a site and its context can realistically support. This is a balancing act that requires honest assessment of both market conditions and community goals. Vacant property reuse options fall into two broad categories:…

Systemic vacancy describes the community experience of widespread property vacancy caused by the combination of population shifts, economic change, and policy decisions. It is important to understand that not all vacant properties are harmful. A certain level of property vacancy is normal and necessary for a functioning real estate market. When families and businesses move—due to job changes, preference changes, family transitions, or economic necessity—a property must be available for them to move to. Without…

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties pose significant costs to public health, property values, local taxpayers, and more. They contribute to a fragmentation of the social fabric; as vacancy increases, residents feel more isolated and less connected to their neighbors. The concentration of empty properties signals broader neglect, reinforcing perceptions that the neighborhood is undervalued. Over time, this dynamic depresses property values and accelerates disinvestment and abandonment. This section is about quantifying the true costs of…

Systemic property vacancy results from a fundamental imbalance between housing supply and demand. You can’t solve “blight” without addressing this imbalance—which is fundamentally about the strength of your local real estate market. To craft an effective strategy to address vacant and abandoned properties at scale, community leaders must understand how real estate markets work. A Note on Distinguishing City-wide vs. Neighborhood Markets: City-wide economic indicators like median wealth and average housing cost can mask vastly…

Communities facing more vacant properties than they can readily address need a strategy that tackles the problem as equitably, efficiently, and effectively as possible. A sound strategy rests on four pillars: A vacant property strategy should pursue two related aims: address existing vacant properties and prevent future ones. Preventing future vacancy means addressing the underlying conditions that cause properties to be abandoned in the first place, breaking the cycle rather than simply responding to its…

Armed with a clear picture where your vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties are located, what condition they’re in, and who owns them, a community is well-positioned to develop a comprehensive strategy for neighborhood revitalization. This page gives an overview of the tools and strategies for addressing vacancy. Each represents an intervention on the continuum of addressing vacant and abandoned properties, from preventing a property from deteriorating past the point of no return, to legal mechanisms…

When property owners fail to maintain their homes, time takes its toll. Eventually, a property may become so deteriorated that the only remaining, economically feasible option is to demolish it to protect public health and safety. Over the past few decades, cities grappling with widespread vacancy have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on demolition. Following the 2008 recession, federal programs like the Hardest Hit Fund—which provided $7.6 billion initially in 2010 and an additional…

Finding out who owns vacant property in your community is an essential step to building a strategy that encourages reuse and revitalization. Laws in the United States are designed to protect an individual’s private property. Even if a property owner walks away, stops paying property taxes, and lets the home fall into disrepair, they are still its rightful owner—up to a point. Municipalities can step in when a property is posing health and safety risks…

Local officials, planners, nonprofit organizations, and residents have access to vast amounts of data about their communities. This data enables people to understand what is going on in their community, including crime patterns, tax foreclosures, vacant properties, and housing market trends. Often, however, people don’t know which datasets can give them what information, how reliable they are, and where to find them. When developing a vacant property revitalization strategy, the first step is knowing where…

Demolition should be targeted and strategic. Municipalities running demolition programs should use funds cost-effectively, pursue cost recovery from property owners where possible, and integrate demolition with broader revitalization strategies. Effective demolition programs are built on three elements: Most communities experiencing systemic vacancy have far more distressed buildings to potentially demolish than resources to do so. The right choice for any given building depends on the building’s condition, its relationship to surrounding structures, neighborhood characteristics, and…