The thousands of Arizona homes now sitting empty, in the wake of the real estate slump, have created some new jobs. Some property owners are hiring caretakers to house-sit for them and protect their investments. Some are turning to a unique publication, Gary Dunn's Caretaker Gazette.
GARY DUNN: And so we're getting more and more advertisements from real estate investors who are stuck with a home they can't sell someplace, and they just want even a trustworthy, reliable house-sitter to live in this empty home.
Dunn says it's a win-win for anybody wanting a free place to live and a property owner with an unsold, empty house. Census figures show more than 16 percent or 463,000 Arizona homes are still sitting vacant. That's up more than 60 percent from ten years ago.