Free Republic

I can't even imagine what this is like! A woman in Atlanta, Georgia, was on vacation when she got a phone call from a neighbor asking if she was having her home demolished while she was away, because it was BEING DEMOLISHED. Watch the local news story and you can see the aftermath and hear homeowner Susan Hodgson tell the story: VIDEO AT LINK......... The dude tried to tell the neighbor to leave him alone, not to get in his way, and when a family member came over and asked for proof the guy realized he had come to the...

Maine has the most vacant housing out of all 50 states, according to new research from real estate website LAHomes. The Pine Tree State had an average home vacancy rate of 23.9 between 2011 and 2021, the research shows. The state’s home vacancy rate peaked at 23.3 percent in 2013 and fell to its lowest—22.5 percent—in 2020. Alaska and Vermont have the second and third-highest vacant home rates, respectively. The Last Frontier state has an average home vacancy rate of 21.4 percent during that same time, LAHomes also found. Home vacancy rates reached their highest in Alaska in 2012 and...

The Denver metro area is a study in real estate contrasts. Many office buildings now sit with high vacancy rates, but cranes mark where new apartments are rapidly being built. At the corner of 6th Avenue in Simms Street in Lakewood used to be an office building. For a dozen years, it sat empty and now it's been turned into something unique. It is now an apartment building that has struck the right note.

President Joe Biden pledged to ban “assault weapons” again during a Wednesday night address to the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference, saying he would secure the ban “come hell or high water.” FOX News quoted Biden saying, “I know it may make some of you uncomfortable, but that little state above me, Delaware is one of them, has the highest rate, one of the highest rates of gun ownership. But guess what? We’re going to ban assault weapons again come hell or high water. And high capacity magazines.” Last night Biden vowed to ban assault weapons 'come hell or high...

Almost a week after the midterm elections, San Francisco's Proposition M, a vacancy tax on landlords, is projected to pass. The San Francisco Chronicle called the race Monday afternoon. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.) The ballot measure is a warning shot at landlords who are sitting on multiple vacant units, but it includes some notable carve-outs that critics say will blunt its impact. Starting on Jan. 1, 2024, property owners with at least three units that have been vacant for more than 182 days (six months) will be taxed...

I went to sign into facebook and the opening page has this movie with an empty chair hanging in the air.I doubt they meant it as an obama slam, but I thought it was funny.

Imagine coming back from an extended stay away from home only to find someone has set up shop in your house, claiming it now belongs to them. That’s just what’s happened in dozens of cases in Tarrant County, Texas, where the District Attorney says crooks are trying to use a decades old law to conduct a new scam. “It's just people trying to get something for nothing,” says Tarrant County DA Joe Shannon. The problem first came to Shannon’s attention this year, when police agencies started calling about strange but similar cases. One of them involved Joe Brunner, the head...

New York - High residential vacancies are killing many housing markets, as foreclosed homes sit on the market and depress sale prices and property values. And it's only getting worse: The national vacancy rate crept up to just over 13% according to last week's decennial census report. That's up from 12.1% in 2007. "More vacant homes equal more downward pressure on home prices," (Snip) Maine had the highest proportion of empty housing stock, at 22.8%. Other states with gluts of empty houses included Vermont (20.5%), Florida (17.5%), Arizona (16.3%) and Alaska (15.9%).

Open letter to Mitt Romney; Please do us all a favor and try to take Kennedy's seat. As a sitting Senator you can still run for President and keep the libs form another vote in the Senate.Mr. Romney expressed no desire to run, I would like more of an explanation than this. Click here.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Governor Pat Quinn is promising to go through the state budget line by line to look for waste and inefficiency. Some lawmakers say all he needs to do is take the elevator one flight down to find a waste of taxpayer's money. Dane Placko reports on the debate over what to do with the lieutenant governor's office.

The first mortgage foreclosure on my block, a couple of years ago, didn't seem like it was part of the current housing crisis. A young family moved in — husband, wife and child. Although they were new, they became active with neighbors on the block. Their son played with other kids. Within a few months of their moving in, Mom gave birth to twins. It was a celebratory occasion for block club members. But shortly, things went bad. After some months of the usual agony and loathing, they divorced. The property settlement left Dad with the house and a mortgage...

I am convinced that it is time for the party of Lincoln to reject the leadership of Lott. None of my business as a state elected official? I believe it is every Republican's business. I agree with President Bush that Senator Lott has seriously erred, and with Senate Whip Don Nickles that a new leader is needed. It's nothing personal. In some tough legislative leadership contests of my own, I've realized that these decisions are not about approval or disapproval of someone, they are about political judgments. The question facing the senator's colleagues, and our party as a whole, is...

<p>December 14, 2002 -- Sen. Trent Lott still doesn't get it.</p> <p>Yesterday he offered up yet another dose of contrition for the inanity he pronounced a week ago.</p> <p>But it won't fly.</p> <p>"I want to say this about my state," Lott said. "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."</p>

A poll worth Freeping, What should Trent Lott do?

Trent "Vacant" Lott is up to bat at 5:30 EST.