The Costs of Vacant and Abandoned Properties

IN THIS SECTION

• Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Public Health
• Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Public Safety
• Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Individual Wealth
• Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Public Finances

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 vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in order to help build a case to reform the status quo and return them to productive uses that benefit neighbors and neighborhoods.

Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Public Health

Long-term vacant properties are associated with many negative health outcomes for neighbors, including high blood pressure, cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, high cholesterol, kidney disease, and stroke. Visual evidence of vacancy and neighborhood disinvestment—such as boarded up properties, trash and dumping, and overgrown weeds—harms the mental health of neighbors, putting them at greater risk of sadness, depression, stress, and elevated rates of intentional injury. Substandard housing conditions have been correlated repeatedly with mental distress, behavioral dysfunction, and psychological harm.

Meanwhile, deteriorated properties that have serious unmet repair needs—like a leaking roof, collapsing porch, or unsafe electrical system—pose health and safety threats to residents and neighbors. Mold and other microbes can grow in damp homes (caused by leaks or other water intrusion) leading to respiratory illnesses. Lead paint and plumbing, common in older homes, causes lasting neurological harm in children. Poorly installed or ventilated heating and cooking systems can expose residents to carbon monoxide. If property owners are unwilling or unable to fix these problems, these issues can snowball, causing residents to become ill or injured. When the cost of repairs becomes overwhelming, residents either must continue living in increasingly unhealthy or dangerous conditions, or be forced to leave. Either way, the property is on a path towards becoming vacant.

These are just a few of the many studies available on the relationship between vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties and public health:

• A 2003 study of 107 US cities found that boarded-up housing was a significant predictor of premature death before age 65 (including from cancer, diabetes, homicide, and suicide) even after controlling for race, poverty, education, and health insurance coverage.
• A 2011 study tracking low-income urban women with children found that an increase in household disrepair—including leaky structures, broken plumbing, broken windows, and pests—was associated with a concurrent increase in symptoms of psychological distress, and that social support and self-esteem did not buffer that relationship.
• A 2016 study in Cleveland tracking nearly 14,000 children from birth through kindergarten found that prolonged exposure to substandard or foreclosed housing was associated with lower literacy scores, higher rates of child maltreatment, elevated lead levels, and more frequent moves. It found eliminating housing disadvantage could substantially narrow the achievement gap between Black and white students.
• This 2017 Urban Institute report is a literature review synthesizing available research on how property deterioration and vacancy affects physical and mental health.
• A 2018 study of nearly 20,000 communities across the 50 largest US metro areas found that long-term vacant housing was significantly associated with poorer health outcomes in adults, with very long-term vacancies—those lasting more than three years—linked to health problems across all types of metros regardless of whether they were growing, shrinking, or hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis.
• A 2019 study in Philadelphia found children in census tracts with a higher percentage of vacant properties had a 1.45 times higher risk of elevated blood lead levels.
• A 2019 study in Missouri found the percent of vacant housing in a community was significantly associated with increased mental health-related hospitalizations.
• A 2022 study in Houston surveying residents of neighborhoods struck by Hurricane Harvey found that higher levels of neighborhood vacancy and abandonment were significantly associated with elevated rates of PTSD and poorer health-related quality of life, with abandonment rates in hurricane-impacted communities rising sharply in the two years following the disaster.
• A 2023 study in Chicago examining nearly 6,600 residents found that neighborhood disadvantages collectively increased the likelihood of asthma, with neighborhood poverty, vacant housing, and neighborhood alienation together accounting for the majority of that effect. Higher individual income or education did not protect residents from the health risks associated with living in a disadvantaged neighborhood.
• A 2024 study across all US metropolitan areas found that long-term vacant housing was more strongly associated with higher rates of non-communicable diseases like cancer, stroke, and other chronic conditions than short-term vacancies, with shrinking counties in the Northeast showing the most pronounced effects.

In all cases, researchers agree that living in or near concentrated vacant and deteriorated properties causes the greatest harm to the physical and mental health of children.

Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Public Safety

Vacant and abandoned properties are consistently associated with higher levels of crime and violence. While few studies truly quantify the relationship between vacant property and crime on a broad scale, those that do suggest that higher levels of vacancy and deterioration are associated with increased violence on urban blocks, and that efforts to address those problem properties leads to a reduction in crime. These are a few of the studies available:

• A 1993 study in Houston found that blocks with open, unsecured abandoned buildings experience roughly double the crime rates of blocks without them.
• In 2011, there were 9,000 structural fires in the city of Detroit, approximately 85 percent occurring in vacant and abandoned structures.
• A 2012 study in Philadelphia looking at assault and vacant property data between 2002-2006 found a strong relationship between reported aggravated assaults and the number of vacant properties on the same block.
• A 2014 study in Pittsburgh showed that foreclosure alone did not raise crime levels, but once a foreclosed property became vacant, violent crime nearby increased by nearly 20 percent. People interviewed for the study reported emphatically that overgrown lots and deteriorated structures provide cover for drug sales and other illicit activity.
• A 2016 study in Jackson, Mississippi found that overall crime rates increased alongside higher levels of vacant housing, aging housing stock, and resident turnover.
• A 2019 study in a high-crime neighborhood in Ohio examined the relationship between crime, abandoned structures, and demolition of those structure. Participants interviewed for that study indicated that “abandoned houses are problematic for crime because they represent tangible and direct opportunities” for offenders, rather than signaling neighborhood decline.
• A 2019 study in New Orleans found that vacancy was associated with increased property crime and violence, and that the effects of vacant properties spilled into neighboring areas.
• A 2021 study in St. Louis found that vacant properties were a strong and consistent predictor of both homicide and aggravated assault, with the effect most pronounced in the city’s predominantly Black northern neighborhoods that have experienced long-term disinvestment.
• A 2023 study in Baltimore looking at the effects of vacant property demolition on crime between 2014-2019 found a significant reduction in assaults and violent crimes on blocks where abandoned properties were removed.
• A 2023 study in Flint found a strong positive relationship between land bank ownership and stewardship of a vacant property and a reduction in crime and violence near that property.

Even when crime data are mixed, it is evident that visible vacancy contributes to a perception of disorder that undermines residents’ sense of safety. The negative perception of a community as being “crime-ridden” and the visible signals of disinvestment—like illegal dumping, boarded buildings, and neglected lots—discourage private investment regardless of actual crime rates.  Residents who can afford to move often do so, further depressing the local economy, while very low-income residents lack this option. This dynamic is a vicious cycle that weakens neighborhood stability.

Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Individual Wealth

Vacant buildings and lots can significantly depress the value of nearby occupied properties. Evidence also suggests that vacancy and abandonment can be “contagious”—even a single visibly abandoned home can drag down the value of the surrounding properties. In fact, just one vacant property can have nearly as much impact on nearby property values as multiple vacant properties on the same block. Therefore, policy solutions that only partially address vacancy in a neighborhood will be less effective than ones that take a more comprehensive approach. Research that supports these claims includes:

• Research from 2006 in Philadelphia found that an abandoned property could lower sales prices of other homes within 450 feet of it by over $7,000.
• A 2011 study in Columbus, Ohio found that physical disorder in the immediate neighborhood significantly reduced nearby property values, with a single abandoned or vacant building lowering sale prices by nearly $24,000, dilapidated public areas reducing values by over $24,000, and even a single property with strewn trash costing neighboring homeowners more than $13,000 in lost property value.
• A 2012 study in Cuyahoga County, Ohio found that each additional vacant or tax-delinquent property within 500 feet reduced nearby home sale prices by 1 to 2.7 percent, with the largest losses—up to 7.3 percent—occurring when foreclosed properties in high-poverty neighborhoods were also tax-delinquent (a strong indicator of abandonment).
• Research from 2013 looking at nearly two decades of residential property sales data in Baltimore found that abandoned properties significantly reduced nearby home values, with the impact growing larger and spreading farther the longer a property sat vacant. Properties abandoned for less than three years depressed values within 250 feet, while those abandoned for more than three years had measurable spillover effects on homes up to 1,500 feet away.
• A 2016 study of more than 34,000 home sales in Chicago found that nearby properties with unpaid tax liens reduced surrounding home values by 2.5 to 5.1 percent—a loss of $6,300 to $12,900 per home—with the largest losses occurring when the delinquent property’s tax lien went unsold.
• Alan Mallach’s 2018 research in Youngstown, Ohio further illustrates the relationship between vacancy and home prices. As neighborhood vacancy rates rise, median sale prices decline, and not in a simple linear pattern. Even small increases in vacancy are associated with disproportionately large drops in home values.

Vacant lots appear to have similar effects to vacant structures, though the income level of the neighborhood plays a significant factor in how vacant land affects property value. In affluent neighborhoods, the presence of vacant land may be considered a positive for property value, due to being perceived as having high potential for future development. In contrast, vacant lots in low-income neighborhoods reduce property values because they are perceived as undesirable and abandoned, and therefore without development potential. In addition to lowering nearby property values, residents report that neglected lots—often marked by trash, debris, and overgrowth—diminish quality of life and contribute to a sense of decline.

Impact of Vacant, Abandoned, and Deteriorated Properties on Public Finances

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties severely strain the finances of cities, towns, and counties. The additional municipal services these properties demand—including code enforcement, nuisance abatement, fire response, policing, and legal action—quickly add up and are paid for by taxpayers.

At the same time, vacant properties erode the very tax base needed to cover these expenses. They generate little to no property tax revenue and typically sell for minimal amounts at tax sales. Worse, by depressing the value of neighboring properties, they trigger a broader decline in property tax collections that can amount to millions of dollars in losses. Since property taxes are usually a local government’s primary revenue source, a growing vacancy problem creates a compounding cycle: the greater the need, the fewer resources available to address it. The financial toll is substantial:

• A 2016 Community Progress report found that vacant properties cost the city of Toledo, Ohio roughly $9.2 million annually in direct expenses and lost tax revenue. Our analysis found that vacant properties in Toledo lowered the property values of all surrounding properties by an estimated $98.7 million—resulting in the additional cost of an estimated $2.68 million in lost tax revenue.
• A 2022 report in Baltimore calculated that the City was losing nearly $110 million annually in potential revenue due to vacant and deteriorated housing. It was also spending an estimated $100 million each year on vacant property maintenance, boarding, stabilization, demolition, and responding to 911 calls. The report’s authors noted that the true costs were likely even higher.

For cities already stretched thin, vacant properties represent a significant and self-reinforcing drain on public resources.