9 ghost towns of the recession

From Tampa to Dublin to Alicante and Dubai empty condos and villas that were never home to anyone, litter the landscape as a sterile reminder of a party that never was. But perhaps the biggest housing bubble of them all has just been popped - deliberately by the Chinese government who saw that Shanghai and Beijing real estate increases were unsustainable. Over the last month, Beijing housing prices have fallen at a unbelievable 377% annualized rate, possibly heralding part III of the Great recession following the US banking collapse and European sovereign debt crisis. The most dramatic pictures in this collection are of the empty Chinese city of Ordos, which is a piece of government led, speculative development on a scale unimaginable elsewhere. An entire city waiting to be occupied. Ordos is not a failure yet, but if it is, it will be emblematic.

1

lone model houses, rio vista ca. 

2

empty irish housing estates, carrigtwohill. 

3

china's empty city of ordos. 

4

empty villas nicknamed concrete cemeteries in alicante, spain. 

5

dubai's palm island on hold. 

6

fontainebleau casino in las vegas. 

7

never occupied houses, little egg harbor, new jersey. 

8

laurel cove golf-and-residential development in tennessee.

9

l

millions of sq ft empty commerical real estate, natoma ca.