In many cities in the US, particularly in the sunbelt, the burden of municipal tax revenues comes from sales taxes localized within the community and not from property taxes. You might have seen this, indirectly, if you read in the news about transit projects being financed in a county somewhere in the US through a 0.5% sales tax hike. Some cities, like Mesa AZ, have no property tax whatsoever. As a result, there is no impetus for landlords to keep up their property or, in extreme cases like Mesa, to even keep them occupied. Instead, the city lavishes subsidies on new retail construction, leading to a surplus inventory of commercial (retail) real estate. For this reason, American cities are dotted not only with abandoned housing but also abandoned storefronts, since the city cares more about collecting tax revenues from sales rather than from the value of the property itself. It's a screwed-up system, to be sure, and in the rust belt it has basically legitimized sprawl without growth.
