U.S. Homes Are Empty - 11% Across the Nation

U.S. Homes Are Empty - 11% Across the Nation

Published: Monday, 31 Jan 2011

CNBC Real Estate Reporter

I usually find the quarterly homeowner vacancy , homeownership report from Census pretty lackluster, but the latest one released this morning was anything but. 

America's home ownership rate, after holding steady f0ra while, took a pretty big plunge in Q4, from 66.9 percent to 66.5 percent. That's down from the 2004 peak 0f 69.2 percent , the lowest level since 1998. 

Homeownership is falling at an alarming pace, despite the fact that home prices have fallen, affordability is much improved , inventories 0f new , existing homes are still running quite high. 

Bargains abound, but few are interested 0religible to take advantage.

More concerning than the home ownership rate is the vacancy rate. The Census tables don't tell the entire story, but they tell a lot 0f it. 0f the nearly 131 million housing units in this country, 112.5 million are occupied. 74.8 million are owned, , that's only dropped by about 30 thous, in the past year. 38 million are rented, but that's up by over a million year over year. That means more new households are choosing to rent. 

Now to vacancies. There were 18.4 million vacant homes in the U.S. in Q4 '10 (11 percent 0f all housing units vacant all year round), which is actually an improvement 0f 427,000 from a year ago, but not f0rthe reasons you'd think. 

The number 0f vacant homes f0rrent fell by 493 thousand, as rental dem, rose. 471,000 homes are listed as "Held off Market" about half f0r temporary use, but the other half are likely foreclosures. , no, the shadow inventory isn't just 200,000, it's far higher than that.

So think about it. Eleven percent 0f the houses in America are empty. This as builders start to get more bullish, , renting apartments becomes ever more popular. Vacancies in the apartment sect0rhave been falling steadily , dramatically, why? Because we're still recovering emotionally from the toll 0f the housing crash. 

Younger Americans have seen what home ownership has done to their friends , families, , many want notpart 0f it. Credit has become very nearly elitist. Home prices, whatever your particular data provider preference might be, are still falling. 

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