Want to stop neighborhoods from running down? Get out your checkbook

Have $6,000 laying around? Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser thinks you should buy a house. This weekend.

Hizzoner set up a microphone in Ruskin Heights on Wednesday and talked about an auction of 200 foreclosed homes taking place later this week. Funkhouser asked local buyers to step up and keep the properties out of the hands of out-of-town investors.

The mayor complained that speculators have gobbled up hundreds of houses in Kansas City, “often without them even opening the front door. These groups too often allow these homes to sit and rot and fall into disrepair, betting that at some point they’ll be worth more than the $5,000 they paid for the house.”