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A Guide To Understanding And Addressing Vacant Property In The City Of St. Louis, Dana M. Malkus

All Faculty Scholarship

The City of St. Louis has a serious vacant property challenge. Since the population peak in 1950, the City has experienced a 63% decline in population and now has one of the highest rates of vacancy in the nation.¹ The City has approximately 25,000 vacant properties.² Approximately 12,000 of these are owned by the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) or other public agencies,³ which means that approximately 13,000 are privately owned. Most of those vacant properties
are concentrated in the north and southeast portions of the City.⁴ For a city of its size, the City has "an …