Despite Housing Shortage, 16 Million Homes Sit Vacant

Date Published: 
March 10th, 2022

Senior Economist Jacob Channel for LendingTree details new findings that more than 16 million homes throughout the U.S. are sitting vacant. By analyzing U.S. Census Bureau data to rank the nation’s 50 states by their share of unoccupied homes, Channel found that

  • Vermont, Maine and Alaska are the states with the highest vacancy rates. Vacancy rates in these states are 22.86%, 22.68% and 20.51%, respectively. In total, that translates to more than 315,000 unoccupied houses across the three states. 
  • Oregon, Washington and Connecticut are the states with the lowest vacancy rates. Oregon has the lowest vacancy rate at 7.76%, followed by Washington at 7.87% and Connecticut at 8.09%. While these states have the lowest vacancy rates, that doesn’t mean they have the fewest vacant homes. With almost 521,000 unoccupied housing units across the three states, there are nearly 206,000 more vacant homes across Oregon, Washington and Connecticut than in Vermont, Maine and Alaska. 
  • Home prices in states with higher vacancy rates are often — but not always — lower than in states with lower vacancy rates. Median home prices across the 10 states with the highest vacancy rates are an average of about $18,000 lower than in the 10 states with the lowest vacancy rates. But there are many exceptions. For example, Alaska boasts one of the nation’s highest median home values despite having one of the nation’s highest vacancy rates. 

To answer the question of why home prices are so high when so many homes are vacant, Channel predicts that often the economic theory that a high vacancy rate would signify a lack of demand from buyers, which in turn would result in a larger supply of homes on the market driving down prices, is the rule of thumb. However, in certain circumstances, other factors like location, the kind of interest rates being offered to borrowers, and square footage are some reasons some homes continue to sit unoccupied. 

 

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