According to a Reuters story by Ilaina Jonas:

"The vacancy rate at U.S. strip malls reached a 17-year high in the third quarter and mall vacancy was the highest in at least 10 years, reflecting the protracted pull-back by consumers, real estate research firm Reis Inc said.

"The downturn in the U.S. economy, anemic consumer spending and the U.S. housing bust severely hurt new retail properties, 30 percent of which were completed with less than 50 percent occupied, Reis said in a report released on Thursday . . ."

Unfortunately, there are real people and real families involved when things go bust.  I don't celebrate this news.  But it's further evidence that we need to do things differently.

Kaid Benfield writes (almost) daily about community, development, and the environment.  For more posts, see his blog's home page.