Vacant Land in Cities: An Urban Resource

More and more city leaders recognize that they can reuse vacant land and abandoned structures to promote economic growth. But little is known about the amount of vacant land or number of abandoned structures in U.S. cities. This survey is designed to fill that information gap. It examines cities with varying densities and population growth patterns, and uses new data to estimate the amount of vacant land and abandoned structures in U.S. cities.  Overall, the study found that: (1) On average, 15% of a city's land was deemed vacant (2)cities in the South tended to have the most vacant land while cities in the Northeast tended to have the least (3)cities in the Sunbelt, experiencing high levels of growth in population and land area, reported high levels of vacant land, and (4)cities with low proportions of vacant land tended to have high numbers of abandoned structures.