[BUFFALO] Bernice Radle and Jason Wilson, both 27, brandished their own sheaf of marked-up listings at this once-blighted city's annual auction of foreclosed properties. Other would-be homeowners and property moguls huddled over the listings for more than 4,300 parcels of vacant lots and houses, their choices highlighted and starred.

"Last year was so intense," Ms Radle said, "we had to go home and take a nap afterwards."

This was their second auction; at their first, they bought a vacant lot (US$500) and three century-old houses (US$66,000), holdings to which they later added an 1870s cottage purchased directly from the owner for US$1 after convincing him that it would be cheaper to let them assume his debts and fees (about US$5,000) than to spend triple that amount razing the place.