Buffalo Suburbs

A SPREADING PLAGUE OF VACANCIES:

Town officials pulled up to the once-charming farmer's cottage. They barely had time to get out of their car before a neighbor opened her window and called out to them in a hopeful tone: "Are you going to tear it down?"

Vacant houses long have been tagged as a city problem. But this scene was in the Town of Cheektowaga. And there are signs that other first-ring suburbs face the beginnings of a problem that has plagued the city for decades.

Amherst and Cheektowaga combined show a 55 percent increase in the number of vacant housing units, from 3,583 units in 2000 to an estimated 5,558 in 2005, according to 2005 survey data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The figures include both homeowner housing and rentals.

"There are more vacant homes," said Randy Randazzo, an Amherst real estate broker for more than 35 years with M.J. Peterson. "There are more houses that have been foreclosed on, too."

Limited census data showed the Town of Tonawanda's vacancy rates to be fairly level.

Compared with Buffalo's numbers, suburban vacancy rates seem piddling. Buffalo's vacancy rate stands at 17 percent, with more than 20,000 homes empty, according to the 2005 American Community Survey produced by the Census Bureau.

By contrast, the combined vacancy rate for Amherst and Cheektowaga has grown from 4 percent to 6 percent. Given the size of the 2005 survey sample, it's possible the true vacancy rate could be somewhat lower or higher. And only a fraction of these properties are abandoned single-family homes.

But no matter how you cut the data, the number of vacant homes has clearly grown, and that worries some suburban officials. The fear among neighbors and town officials is that some vacant housing may translate into derelict and neglected buildings, a lure for drug dealers, trash dumpers, transients and junkies.