Look at schools, housing stats for that town, upcoming competition, vacancy rates of existing competition, nearby jobs, retail, schools, ect.

Denice,I worked on a nearby rehab in the 78721 zip last year.

Another friend spent 13 hours stuck in his car on the highway, and final abandoned it, hopped a barrier and walked to a nearby Home Depot that stayed open 24 hours to give people shelter when they couldn't get home.

I think that with the circumstances you mentioned above, (assuming there's no other offers on the table for this particular house) I think you should have the realtor tell the sellers that this deal is becoming less and less appealing and that you have interests in other houses in the nearby area.

The problem I see with developing it is that it's in a rough part of town with several other run down and dilapidated properties near by.

My guess (and this is really just a guess) is that they would have an initial instinct to pass on it, particularly if they could get one without the flood risk pretty easily nearby.

But if there's plenty of other vacant land nearby then there's probably not even much land value.

While researching an area I was considering (stockbridge) I noticed The number of active foreclosures was well over 100% higher than the national average, other areas nearby were even higher.

Just because there is a development nearby that is on city water doesn't mean the development is on city sewer as well.

If you can find a nearby address, and look it up on zillow, you can usually find the missing one accurately.Jon