Once-booming city has become ghost town with over 30 PERCENT of homes unoccupied
A once thriving town in Midwestern Indiana has turned into a ghost town, with more than one in three homes standing empty.
According to an analysis by 247WallSt., Gary, Indiana — best known as the birthplace of Michael Jackson — has the highest rate of abandoned homes in the United States: 31.41 percent.
The data shows that the population fell by a whopping 18.2 percent from 2010 to 2020 to just 5,800 residents.
Gary was once a center for steel production that brought jobs to the region, but the loss of the city’s steel mill precipitated a dramatic decline that began in the 1970s.
The city of Gary, Indiana has the highest percentage of vacant homes in America, with a staggering 31.41 percent of properties being vacant
Gary, once a thriving steel center in the Midwest, declined sharply after the 1970s, seeing its population drop 18.2 percent from 2010 to 2020, to just 5,800 residents
According to the analysis, based on data from real estate company ATTOM, the national vacancy rate for homes is around 1.3 percent.
But in Gary, Indiana, the 30 times higher rate is evidence of the city’s long-standing problems. There too, the median home value is just $69,400.
And while Indiana ranks seventh in the U.S. for vacant homes, Gary ranks first in America because the city is filled with abandoned, dilapidated buildings.
Yet the dilapidated city wasn’t always a ghost town. By the mid-20th century, Gary was a booming steel town, fueled by industrial demand.
Gary benefited from the proliferation of steel mills across the country, primarily around the Great Lakes because of their easy access to raw materials.
The city is best known as the center of the United States Steel Corporation and prospered as more than 16,000 steel workers flooded into the area. In the 1920s, the largest manufacturing plant in the country stood here.
And while Chicago, just 30 miles away, is a world away from the state of Gary today, the Indiana city was once known as a rival to the Windy City until its economy collapsed.
Gary, Indiana also has a median home value of just $69,400, one of the worst in the US
Although the decaying city is best known as the birthplace of Michael Jackson, that fact is barely noticeable and his old house is located on a deserted street
The main cause of Gary’s problems is the loss of the steel mill in the 1970s, which employed a significant portion of the city’s residents.
Tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs in the decades that followed, while others fled to nearby towns in hopes of making a living.
“Gary just fell,” said longtime resident Alphonso Washington ATI‘It used to be a beautiful place, but then it wasn’t anymore.’
The city’s problems increased as poverty rose and it once held the unenviable title of “America’s murder capital.”
Although Gary is best known as the birthplace of Michael Jackson, the connection to the King of Pop is barely noticeable.
Jackson’s old house is on a deserted street. According to the local newspaper IndyStar, the house is “gated and in a residential area with many buildings that are boarded up.”
The fact that tours of Jackson’s home are not offered is a sign of the lack of economic incentive in the region, despite his millions of fans.