In her story today, she notes that about four in 10 homes in a census tract on the Harford County Army base are empty. APG says that's because there are more civilians and fewer soldiers working there, and the base realignment and closure process will accelerate that trend.

The vacancy statistics were collected by the U.S. Postal Service for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and provided by The Associated Press, which found that the emptiest neighborhoods nationally were in the Rust Belt rather than recently-battered places like Las Vegas.

Baltimore, which has some Rust Belt characteristics despite progress made in high tech and biotech fields, is home to the rest of the emptiest areas in the region's top five. All are in East Baltimore.

As if you needed a reminder why long-vacant homes are troublesome for neighborhoods, part of an East Baltimore rowhome collapsed Thursday in a pile of rubble.