And Now Presenting:Amazing Satellite Images Of The Ghost Cities Of China[64M Vacant Homes]

businessinsider ^ | | Dec. 14, 2010, 4:15 PM | Chandni Rathod and Gus Lubin

[fight_truth_decay]

The hottest market in the hottest economy in the world is Chinese real estate. The big question is how vulnerable is this market to a crash.

One red flag is the vast number of vacant homes spread through China, by some estimates up to 64 million vacant homes.

We've tracked down satellite photos of these unnerving places, based on a report from Forensic Asia Limited. They call it a clear sign of a bubble: "There’s city after city full of empty streets and vast government buildings, some in the most inhospitable locations.

Click here to see the ghost towns

[fight_truth_decay]

There Are Now Enough Vacant Properties In China To House Over Half Of America
[ the vacant properties could accommodate 200 million people]

"Why would so many properties be held vacant? They're seen as long-term investments, even if renters aren't available.
This is due to the dearth of investment options available to most Chinese, butting up against their rapid wealth creation."

"They need to put their money somewhere, but the stock market is under pressure and bank interest doesn't cover inflation.
So they plunk their money into a new property, just as a place to store their wealth,
even if they don't intend to live in the place and can't find renters."

[Hulka]

Build it and they will come. . . .well. . .maybe not.

[theDentist]

Any American city in another few years, courtesy Barack Lenin Obama

[dynachrome]

Chinese economic holocaust ping? That’s a lot of “Potemkin villages”! I cannot wrap my feeble brain around 64 million vacant housing units.

[reg45]

Aborted children do not need homes.

[Brilliant]

I don’t know much about it, but I would not be surprised if the politicians ordered the construction of this housing in areas where no one lives. The Chinese version of the “bridge to no where.”

[libertarian27]

Nailed it!

They need to adjust their birthrate policies to fill those up.

Amazing amount of empty real estate.

[Hulka]

Sadly. . . very true, and in China, like the rest of the abortion worshiping world, aborted babies don't even need a small plot of land for burial.

[lacrew]

Some interesting comments at the link. Apparently many of these houses are paid for with cash...so the possibility of a Florida style collapse is less. Imagine how full these houses would be, if they didn’t force abortions and infanticide.

[bigbob]

Don’t see much in the way of factories or other means of supporting people

[MeganC]

Looks like lots of places in California.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I don’t know much about it, but I would not be surprised if the politicians ordered the construction of this housing in areas where no one lives. The Chinese version of the “bridge to no where.”

In other words, the folly of central planning rather than letting the market decide.

[poobear]

Manufactured GDP. What to do with those American interest payments of BILLIONS every few months... Meanwhile the peasants are still starving.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

But.. but their economy is expanding at.. what? 500 percent every year for decades? I don’t recall the last few reports.

[Michael Barnes]

Yeah, it’s strange, like they are building this for some future event..

[marvlus]

They are building these for large populations of immigrants to fill the jobs for high-tech and highly-educated people to expand the economy. Cannot remember where I heard this.

[freedomson]

Aborted children do not need homes.

Wow, that sadly brilliant caption, really packs a punch.

[Nachoman]

Maybe they’re expecting a flood of North Korean refugees.

[JRandomFreeper]

500 percent every year for decades?

When you start at where they started after the cultural revolution (some here aren't old enough to remember that), they might be catching up with 1920s America.

Expect the growth rate to taper off quickly. There's a function for that. It involves per capita income, birth rate, outlook for the future, relative Godliness of a population, and a bunch of other stuff. I won't go into the detailed math.

They have built in vain. Edifices to children that never were. All for political control.

/johnny

[Chode]

and possible never will find renters either... without jobs for those they want to live there, they might as well be on the far side of the moon