I don't think that Flint has much relevance to cities of the size of Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. It's pretty much a company town suffering from the reality of the company's demise while the others are large metropolises supported by a diverse economic base.

Flint, Detroit and similar communities are suffering from an age old problem. They relied on a single industry to support their community which is a prescription for oblivion. Many parts of the industrial mid-west did so and are now paying a high price.

So far as I know, there were not a lot of new homes constructed in Flint during the bubble (let me know if you have data indicating otherwise) which would indicate to me that Flint is simply talking about destroying housing that has been around for some time and for which there is no further need. Put another way, I'm unconvinced that Flint's problems are a result of overbuilding.

I hasten to add that though the videos of several houses being destroyed in Victorville received a lot of play on the Web, in fact there have only been a few that were in fact torn down. To the best of my knowledge this is not an ongoing strategy in that town.

Overbuilding is an issue and a big one. I personally don't think that we have come to grips with the issue yet. The political solution to the present problem seems to be to return to the status quo ante and gin up the new home builders. I just don't think it was or is Flint's problem or a problem for a lot of cities similar to Flint.

Franklly, destroying older housing that is likely to have little utility is not a bad strategy for a city like Flint. If they can recreate the town as a charming place to live and in the process attract new viable industries then more power to them.

Overbuilding versus industrial ossification and its knock-on effects and how you deal with each are separate issues.

Thanks for your response to my comment. Take this one as its intended – a counter argument not an attack.

In Victorville, we see new building that is being demolished because demand to live there has diminished – demographic patterns are now moving in reverse.

In cities like Washington DC, Miami, New York, Phoenix and Las Vegas to name a few, despite demographic patterns and the continued demand to live in those cities, there has been overbuilding, especially of so-called 'luxury' apartments and condos.

But in cities like Flint and Detroit, it is the existing housing stock which is now unwanted because of demographic patterns.

The thread that connects all of these stories is the excess inventory of residential property. While Flint might have suffered the same demise had the bubble not occurred, cities like Cleveland, Pittsburghand Baltimore show that terminal decline and the need to destroy housing stock is not a necessary outcome.

So, in my view, the need to destroy houses in Flint is as much a story of overbuilding as the need is in Victorville.

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Edward Harrison

While you are correct that there was a lot of overbuilding and your analysis of the reasons are valid, I think that you're conflating a couple of distinctly different problems.

Flint is a victim of changing economic patterns. Its problem is not overbuilding rather a deterioration of its economy. Whether that should have happened is a subject for another very long discussion but it's not unique to America.

Leave the interstate highways and take to the back roads and you'll find thousands of Flint's throughout the
midwest and west that withered and died. They're called ghost towns. Some died because the mines played out and others because the family farm became a relic. I'm sure there were articles at that time decrying the turn of events but the world did go on.

The Victorvilles of the world are another story. Some (Victorville is a good candidate) were just incredibly stupid places to build homes. Others will probably survive though I doubt recovery will be swift.

There are lessons to be learned from both Flint and Victorville, but I do think they are different lessons.