Some buyers have found large homes in their price range because of the properties’ undesirable locations. Kathleen Hulser, a curator for the New
York Historical Society, bought a four-bedroom summer house in Cornwall
Bridge, Conn., for $255,000. However, about 20 feet away from her house
are train tracks, where a freight train passes every morning, and next
door to the home used to be a Superfund site. Hulser said the train is
no worse than the air and noise pollution in Harlem, where she lives
during the week. And Eridania Diaz bought a crumbling 10-room home with
a wrap-around porch, fireplaces and spiral staircase for $350,000 in
2004. The catch is that Diaz had to spend almost as much as the sale
price to renovate the home, and it sits in Highbridge, one of the
city’s most unsafe areas, according to the police department. Diaz, a
landlord, recently put the home on the market since the downturn has
left many of her tenants unable to pay their rent, and she plans to
move into a smaller home in the neighborhood when she sells. [more]

In an op-ed
in the Gotham Gazette, David Von Spreckelsen, a senior vice president
of Toll Brothers, said he doesn’t want the Gowanus Canal to become a
Superfund site. He said that Superfund designation, which would allow
the Obama administration to provide federal money for the clean-up, would delay the developer’s plans to build near the
canal. Von Spreckelsen said the city’s plan to clean the canal
would address its contamination that affects the quality of life of
those who live and work in the area. Von Spreckelsen said that it would
be years before the
government started work on the site because it has to determine
responsible parties for the pollution, which would result in several
lawsuits. [more]