Built with visions of suburban prosperity in more optimistic times, the empty shells of former dream homes dot the countryside among piles of construction rubble and fallen-down fences. Economic highs and lows have led to abandonments of entire villages all over the world, from China to the Mediterranean, but Ireland is among the nations that was particularly hard-hit.

Photographer Valérie Anex captures Ireland’s ‘ghost estates’ in a series of striking images that juxtapose a fading hope for sanitized suburbia with the current reality, which is simply that nobody can afford to live in these houses. The National Institute for Regional and Spacial Analysis defines ‘ghost estates’ as developments of ten houses or more in which fifty percent or less of the homes are occupied or completed.

The latest tally of ghost estates in Ireland, taken in 2013, is 30% less than it was when Anex took these photos in 2011, but that’s still well over ten thousand mostly-empty neighborhoods in a relatively small nation (and just a small percentage of Ireland’s 350,000-some-odd abandoned houses.)

Most of the ghost estates are found in the rural areas of the northern and western parts of the country. Says Anex, “These empty shells are eyesores for the locals in these small towns. The crisis is affecting the country – unemployment, debts, budget cuts, flights of capital investments – but it is also shaping its landscape.”

“Bitter memories left by the spectral and temporary nature of the property boom in Ireland, ghost estates are the symbol of the property market’s collapse, a topology of the economic disintegration of the country.”

The Ghost Estates series will be on display at the Photobookshow in Brighton, England this June.

(Check out our complete collection of 100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property.)

Missile silos might be the world’s most amazing abandonments. There is something about their immense scale, implicit secrecy, loaded history and and underground location that makes them an exciting target for urban exploration. Here are some fascinating examples of deserted subterranean silos one can visit and even purchase!

One set of intrepid building infiltrators set about breaking into the above missile silo (location undisclosed) at risk of both personal injury and federal penalty. Despite their retroactive warnings not to follow their example, these adventurers produced an amazing photo-documentary of their journey. As you navigate their website, it becomes a kind of choose-your-own-adventure tale allowing you to pick your path.

The Minuteman Missile Tour exists at the opposite end of the legal spectrum, providing a fun and interesting but completely safe and legitimate tour through an abandoned missile complex. Located in South Dakota, annual summer tours regularly fill completely with people who are curious about America’s past and the days of the Cold War, when fears of Mutually Assured Destruction haunted the country’s psyche. Also be out this amazing collection of missiles, rockets and other weapons.

Last but not least, it is even possible to buy your own abandoned missile silo and associated complex! Even better: you can do so from the comfort of your computer via eBay for 15 million dollars. Of course, you may have have to sell your house to afford the $300,000 downpayment, but wouldn’t it be worth it? The people who bought one and converted it into a luxury home with a private landing strip certainly thought so (below) as well as the retired couple living in one shown in this video: