# Vacant House Characteristics by Use Area and Their Application to Sustainable Community
## 2 Literature Review
Vacant houses' degree of aging was highest in the original downtown type, because the location with poor accessibility to the metropolitan area and economic feasibility were not accompanied by reconstruction and redevelopment; population decrease had the highest correlation with vacant houses. In the surrounding mixed type, the ratio of vacant houses with relatively less advanced aging was high. Although the proportion of empty houses was low in the island type, the risk of empty houses was very high because of the natural occurrence of empty houses related to young people departing and elderly people dying. In the expansion type, since the city expands through innovative industries, etc., housing quality was good and vacant house density and degree of deterioration were low, but it was characterized by vacant houses in the original downtown area owing to population movement to newly developed areas. We also reviewed studies that examined vacant houses from both a spatial structural and geographical point of view. [PERSON] et al. [33] analyzed the influence of regional characteristics of vacant houses and found a relationship between empty houses and the distance from nearby living facilities, such as the distance from elementary schools and convenience facilities. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [34] confirmed that the local extinction index had a significant relationship with the vacant house ratio because all houses become vacant when there are no residents in the area. This suggests that the probability of vacant houses increases as problems arise in a region's permanence, demonstrating the need for mid- to long-term inflow of new investment to stimulate housing transactions. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [26] also studied the effect of regional characteristics on vacancy rate change and found that geographical defects, such as high altitude, steep slope, and poor accessibility, were related to vacant houses. [PERSON] [35] analyzed the relationship between vacancy and gentrification in Columbus and Youngstown and found that geographic and gentrification characteristics influence housing neglect and that the influence of family characteristics differs by region. [PERSON] et al. [36] reported similar results, where defects such as house structure, size, and site were factors in vacant houses. House location was also closely related to vacant house occurrence. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [37] studied the occurrence of vacant houses in terms of environmental location. Vacant houses occurred when there was an increase in the number of workplaces emitting environmental pollutants, the number of workplaces in the industrial complex, and the amount of wastewater generated and discharged and when the distance to the workplace was closer and the location nearer the workplace. These previous studies show that vacant houses are not the result of a single cause but multiple causes, with various pathways and factors. Studies that examined externalities caused by vacant houses analyzed the relationship between vacant houses and social problems (crime, housing prices, etc.). The broken windows theory proposed by criminologists [PERSON] and [PERSON] is a representative study on the relationship between empty houses, crime, and social deviant behavior. The theory asserts that, if a broken window is left unattended, crime begins to spread in the neglected area [38]. [PERSON]'s [14] related study confirmed that more than half of the abandoned vacant houses in the Austin area were used as crime sites. In a similar study, [PERSON] [39] confirmed a positive relationship between the vacant houses seized in Chicago and the crime rate in the area. [PERSON] [40] studied the relationship between vacant houses and house prices by analyzing the influence of vacant and neglected houses on surrounding house prices in the Columbus area and found that a higher frequency of vacant houses (which differ from foreclosed houses) was associated with lower housing prices. [PERSON] and [PERSON]'s [41] study of Pittsburgh reported results similar to [PERSON]'s [40].