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Yes, absolutely. The US Census has a report on vacancy rates here: https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf https://www.census.gov/housing/

Yes, absolutely. The US Census has a report on vacancy rates here: https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf Table 3 has a section called "Vacant - Held Off Market" which shows the number that are held off market for whatever reason. It's a relatively small number, but it does comprise tens if not hundreds of thousands of units across the country. Here's another report from Berkeley that has some graphs that describe "rented or sold but not yet occupied" rates, as well, which would be emblematic of the renovations and such. https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CR_Final_2.3.19.pdf https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02...

miguelazo 3y ago
I would be very skeptical of how comprehensive that data is. Are they counting the empty "bank account" condos that have flooded every major metro downtown as vacant? Doubtful, because they're not on the market even though no one lives there. No is reporting that data-- in fact, there have been efforts to kill such proposals.
- tptacek 3y ago
  If you have countervailing data, present it, but it's not reasonable for a thread to demand evidence of someone, see the evidence, and then attempt to refute that evidence with supposition.
alex_young 3y ago
I believe you are misreading this data. From the report you referenced: Vacant year-round units comprised 7.9 percent of total housing units Table 3 shows the raw numbers in thousands, so add 3 decimal places and you see that there are: 15M vacant houses 11.5M vacant year round 6.8M held off market
- Jemaclus 3y ago
  Thanks for the correction!
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  My understanding is that short term turnover falls under the "vacant year-round" number. It doesn't mean that a given house has actually been empty for 12 months. A house that is currently for rent and has been uninhabited for 1 month counts in that category because there's no long-term residence. for example, the average time between rentals may be 1 month, but replaced by a new rental coming on market after that month. Therefore, the average is 1 vacancy year round. The census provides the average vacancy duration as 2.7 months. Of the 11.5M vacant year round, 15% have been vacant longer than 12 months. So this means about 1.6M houses. The majority of these houses are outside of metro areas. The vacancy durations are in table 8 here. https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/detailed_tables.html https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/detailed_tables.html

miguelazo 3y ago

I would be very skeptical of how comprehensive that data is. Are they counting the empty "bank account" condos that have flooded every major metro downtown as vacant? Doubtful, because they're not on the market even though no one lives there. No is reporting that data-- in fact, there have been efforts to kill such proposals.

tptacek 3y ago
If you have countervailing data, present it, but it's not reasonable for a thread to demand evidence of someone, see the evidence, and then attempt to refute that evidence with supposition.

alex_young 3y ago

I believe you are misreading this data. From the report you referenced: Vacant year-round units comprised 7.9 percent of total housing units Table 3 shows the raw numbers in thousands, so add 3 decimal places and you see that there are: 15M vacant houses 11.5M vacant year round 6.8M held off market

Jemaclus 3y ago
Thanks for the correction!
s1artibartfast 3y ago
My understanding is that short term turnover falls under the "vacant year-round" number. It doesn't mean that a given house has actually been empty for 12 months. A house that is currently for rent and has been uninhabited for 1 month counts in that category because there's no long-term residence. for example, the average time between rentals may be 1 month, but replaced by a new rental coming on market after that month. Therefore, the average is 1 vacancy year round. The census provides the average vacancy duration as 2.7 months. Of the 11.5M vacant year round, 15% have been vacant longer than 12 months. So this means about 1.6M houses. The majority of these houses are outside of metro areas. The vacancy durations are in table 8 here. https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/detailed_tables.html https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/detailed_tables.html