Skeletons of the Great Recession: These American cities are still plagued by homes abandoned to foreclosure



The Great Recession may be an unpleasant memory for most, but some residents of what were once booming cities continue to face after-effects of the financial crisis in the form of home foreclosure.

And instead of waiting out the process of losing one's home, which in some states can take years, a shocking percentage of homeowners in foreclosure choose to simply abandoned their homes.

The problem is especially severe in cities where problems like plummeting home values, rising unemployment and painfully long foreclosure proceedings continue to plague citizens years after the recession officially ended.

Sinking ships: According to data compiled by 24/7 Wall St., the city suffering the most from abandoned foreclosure homes is Wichita, Kansas

Financial website 24/7 Wall St. put together a list of the 10 cities in America with the most abandoned foreclosed homes.

The worst off city, according to data compiled by 24/7 Wall St., is Wichita, Kansas.

While the website notes that Wichita had just 301 homes in foreclosure, nearly half had been abandoned.



At 49 percent, Wichita's rate of abandoned properties was the highest in the nation thanks, at least in part, to the state's foreclosure process which takes 524 days on average.



This, compared with falling home prices, has many residents simply cutting their losses.

Reasons vary: Las Vegas, which was once a real estate boom town, is also on the list. Reasons homeowners abandon foreclosures vary from city to city. They can be motivated by ever falling home prices, rising unemployment or even painfully long foreclosure processes

The Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area in Oregon and Washington, where 37 percent of foreclosed homes were vacated, clocks in just under Wichita.



Unlike in Wichita, home prices are on the rise in this area so the abandoned home problem could soon ease up with the help of a fall in the average length of foreclosure proceedings.



Unemployment may be the problem in the third worst area for abandoned foreclosures, the Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama area.



The rate of joblessness rose between 2013 and 2014, unlike much of the nation.



Kansas City, Missori and Kansas, fourth on the list, has a 36 percent rate of vacated foreclosures and could be due to the recent 9 percent drop in housing prices.



The following six cities on the 24/7 Wall St. list are, in order: St. Louis, Missouri; Worcester, Massachusetts; Syracuse, New York; Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada; Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida; and Boise City, Idaho.

















