Urban homes prices fell across the U.S. in the fourth quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors. No surprise there, given the glut of supply and the growing feeling among buyers that waiting might bring even better deals come spring. This seems logical, since would-be sellers who gave up are apt to try again, flooding the market with re-listings. The shocker in the Realtors' report was that among cities where real estate prices rose, my hometown, Atlantic City, topped the list with a 26 percent gain. Twenty-six percent! When I left for California in 1978, the first casino had just opened and the faded Queen of Resorts looked like it was on its way to becoming Camden with casinos. And so it did, as anyone who has visited the town would attest. With all those new billions of dollars flowing through Resorts International, Bally's, Golden Nugget et al., just enough of it trickled onto Atlantic City's streets to make the city the ugliest, most unredeemably trashed-out cesspool-of-a-resort in the history of urban redevelopment. Politics and Prison Am I being a bit harsh? Well, you'd have to have grown up there to know just how far the town fell after it supposedly hit bottom as a result of a failed urban renewal project in the 1970s. The city had razed 80 acres of mostly big old houses built in the 1930s and 1940s, but when it came time to replace them with bigger and better amenities, the lead developer got cold feet and walked; then others followed. The city couldn't sue the builders because it had negotiated contracts that were full of holes. After that, a few mayors and councilmen went to prison, an Atlantic City tradition. By the time the casinos got rolling in 1978, they were able to
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