When a house has been abandoned by its owners but has yet to be grabbed up by the bank and put back on the market, those in the real estate business call it a “zombie.” Why would anybody just up and leave their house? One imagines they have more than one (houses, that is), or at least they have someplace else to go, someplace more attractive to them for some reason. Perhaps the house they leave behind to become zombified is in poorer shape than the one to which they are moving. Or it might be in an overall bad neighborhood. This also explains why banks, which usually don’t let the dust settle on any abandoned building (or anything else) before swooping in like vultures to take possession of it and resell it, are willing to let the zombie just sit there and slowly rot away. It isn’t worth the investment to foreclose or fix the place up. In certain neighborhoods, places like this are also referred to as “crack houses.” I like “zombie” better.
I don’t expect any of you really care about abandoned houses or the intricacies of real estate. I don’t either. I mention it only because, searching the trusty old Internet today for zombie news, this headline caught my attention, and it perfectly illustrates just how pervasive the concept of the zombie has become in our culture. When ever real estate people are using the term, you know the zombie has pretty much taken over the public consciousness. Brains!