Long Island Zombie Houses
Newsday has put together a report on the "Zombie House" epidemic found here on Long Island. It is a pretty interesting read.
http://data.newsday.com/projects/long-island/zombie-houses/
It seems to me, the biggest issue is that NYS is a judicial foreclosure state. The average foreclosure takes roughly 3 years to complete.
As a real estate agent, I had a short sale listed that was about 6 years behind on the loan. They purchased the property in 10/2006 and never made a single payment. As far as I know, the property is still stuck in foreclosure. I walked away from it after the loan got sold for a 3rd time.
I would assume if NYS opened the reins and allowed the foreclosure process to speed up, there would be a good opportunity for investors to pick up properties. I would also think this would keep home prices in the area depressed for a few more years.