As the housing market crumbles, hundreds of thousands of working class people face foreclosure and potential homelessness. Realtors in Orlando, Fla., and several other cities across the United States, however, have come up with a creative way to profit from the suffering of others.
Prospective home buyers can now pay $45 for a six-hour bus tour of foreclosed houses in neighborhoods that have been devastated by the crisis. According to RealtyTrak, Inc., Florida had 32,447 homes in foreclosure in February, the third-highest percentage of ongoing foreclosures in the nation.
Similar tours have taken place in Phoenix, Kansas City, Detroit, Jacksonville and other cities. A recent Orlando “tour” attracted a diverse group: working class people looking for a home, real estate speculators lured by depressed prices and a British citizen wanting to take advantage of the increasingly weak U.S. dollar.
