I have lived in (or near) a number of large cities over the years, and have now had the occasion to see multiple metropolitan areas dealing with the problem of vacant housing. Sometimes, integral to the problem is unclear ownership. Other times, it is a large concentration of bank-owned properties — so-called REO — that for whatever reason can’t be moved. Ironically, sometimes local efforts to make sure homes are up to code and livable makes it more difficult to rectify the problem: banks and other remote owners are not in a position to arrange lots of repairs and inspections. Hopefully other regions will come up with novel solutions to the issues of vacant housing, because they are coming to a metropolitan area near you.

“Separate But Equal” used to be a perfectly valid legal principle. Now of course, you would be sued into oblivion for advertising a “Blacks Only” community — and rightly so! — but there was a time when such developments thrived. Now such neighborhoods are fighting for historical recognition.

If you are not familiar with the BondDad, you really should be. Here he talks about some of the issues involved in banks and mortgage companies unwinding their bad loan positions. Here he discusses housing prices and historical averages — please note that he is looking at the big, national picture and not the Vegas picture (which is looking up in my opinion). And here he talks about employment data. This is normally a topic I would discuss elsewhere, but people who don’t have jobs have a hard time paying the rent or mortgage.

And interesting news from the construction front. Could bamboo be the building material of the future? It’s strong, renewable, and grows like crazy. In some parts of the world, it’s already the building material of choice.