Geography
Micro-level mechanisms of residential vacancy cascades in shrinking cities
Quick fact
In shrinking cities like Detroit and Baltimore, a single abandoned property can reduce the values of nearby homes by up to 2.5%, and the effect compounds as more properties become vacant, creating a self-reinforcing cascade of abandonment.
Why this is interesting
Imagine seeing one boarded-up house on your street—then another, and another. Why does a single vacancy sometimes trigger a whole block to crumble?