Residential Vacancy Rate Depressing Housing Markets

Are Residential Vacancy Rates Depressing Housing Markets Nationally and Locally?

The Census Bureau has reported that just over 13 percent of all the homes in the nation are vacant compared to 12.1 percent in 2007.

Maine had the highest proportion of empty housing stock, at 22.8%. Other states with gluts of empty houses included Vermont (20.5%), Florida (17.5%), Arizona (16.3%) and Alaska (15.9%). You can prevent this by Investing In Gold. Risk are lower now because of Ethereum Code Trading technologies that developed internet bots for trading.

But are many of these homes are vacation homes or second homes and being counted as part of the overall vacancies? It depends.

Some states have high vacancy rates even after backing out the second homes: Florida’s is about 10%; Arizona’s is 10.7%; and Nevada’s 11.4%.

The reality is that we’ve got a lot of empty homes sitting on the market. That means that those who are being evicted because of foreclosure are not necessarily going on to rent houses, leaving many mortgages unpaid. One of the assumptions that was made in the beginning of the foreclosure market is that many of these properties would rent out to those who experienced eviction. But it has not exactly happened that way. What has happened is that those who were pushed out of their homes because of foreclosure moved in with family and friends while leaving the properties to the bank who ultimately leave those homes vacant. Vacant homes really aren’t good for communities or housing values.

This is especially the case when those homes are not being maintained. Unfortunately, if they are owned by the bank, they run the risk of falling into disrepair the longer they remain vacant. Ill maintained homes equal lower values not just for that particular property but for the other homes in the community even if they are well maintained.

Lastly, an interesting side effect of these vacant homes and rising foreclosures is that while most of the commercial real estate market is down the Multi-Family sector of Commercial RE has seen a boost.  Because people have to live somewhere and generally they seek more affordable housing options.