ghost shopping

What happens when the 22 times average salary property bubble collapses taking the ghost shopping malls and other commercial ghost towns with it?

Critics say that easy lending and low interest rates have led to a construction boom that has produced ghost housing estates and even ghost shopping malls.

Robert J. Gibbs, a retail consultant and urban planner from Birmingham, Mich., who is regularly on the road monitoring these things for cities and developers, estimates that there are 500 to 1,000 ghost shopping centers in the country.

At the northeast end of the bay, on Sonoma Boulevard in a new part of the suburb of Vallejo, is a ghost shopping center so empty this holiday season that the only congestion in the parking lot is a crowd of sea gulls fighting over French fries.