As the real estate market heats up I can not help but remember the foreclosures. The foreclosure peak and tsunami passed some time ago but the great recession has left vacant lots and condemned houses all over the city. The hardest hit neighborhoods were the neighborhoods with the lowest home values.
The number of registered vacant buildings in St. Paul has gone way down and is now a 3 digit number: 738., at one point there were more than 2000. Most of the buildings on the list are residential. I noticed that the city raised the registration fee. As fewer buildings are registered there is less revenue for the city but more shoveled sidewalks for the rest of us in the winter.
