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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Over 300-Thousand Vacant Properties in VA

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Friday, October 14, 2011   

RICHMOND, Va. - Foreclosures and vacant properties bring down real estate values in neighborhoods - and numbers from 2010 indicate there are more than 308,000 vacant housing units in The Commonwealth.

According to a new report from Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia (HOME), the state's highest foreclosure rates are in urban areas, mainly from Hampton Roads through Richmond to Northern Virginia. However, it is the rural areas that have the highest vacancy rates, says report coauthor Ali Faruk, director of the Center for Housing Leadership.

"Those areas were losing jobs, losing population, and that area's been hard-hit by commercial vacancies as well as residential vacancies, even before the start of the great recession. And then, once the housing crisis hit and the recession started, it got even worse."

In terms of median home prices, the report says Northern Virginia has experienced the most significant decreases. In general, home sales have begun to stabilize, although Faruk adds they are nowhere near what they were before the housing collapse.

As a result of the length of the recession and the housing crisis, Faruk points out that many vacant properties are poorly maintained, which perpetuates the cycle of falling property values. He is convinced that investments such as those proposed under the American Jobs Act would go a long way toward stabilizing the market, because funds would be used for maintenance and repairs.

"It will make a tangible difference, it will improve the value in people's homes, it will improve the value of their neighborhoods and it will improve the safety of their communities, because vacant properties do become a target for criminals."

In particular, he says "Project Rebuild," a component of the American Jobs Act, would create jobs and help boost the housing market. In Virginia, he notes Gov. Bob McDonnell supports a similar idea as part of his statewide housing policy. The U.S. Senate voted against the American Jobs Act earlier this week.




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