Number of vacant U.S. homes hits record 18.6 million

[New Dawn]

Source: Reuters

Homeowner vacancies hit record high

By Joanne Morrison Mon Apr 28, 12:58 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The share of vacant U.S. homes rose to a record level in the first quarter, the government reported on Monday, with homeowners finding it increasingly difficult to find buyers in a collapsed market and more homes in foreclosure.

The percentage of owner-occupied homes now sitting empty rose to 2.9 percent in the January-to-March period, the third quarter in a row in which the vacancy rate increased, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the final quarter of last year, the share of vacant non-rental housing stood at 2.8 percent, a level hit for the first time a year ago. However, officials at Census called the latest increase "statistically insignificant."

Still, the total number of vacant U.S. properties hit 18.6 million, which was a record, a Census official said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080428/us_nm/usa_housing_vacancies_dc

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The next time you see a homeless person, remember that there are 18.6 million vacant homes. There is something terribly wrong with this society.

[maddezmom]

1. kick

I removed the dupe glitch :hi:

[New Dawn]

3. Thank you.

[notesdev]

2. No doubt

There is something seriously wrong with a system that leaves so many homes vacant while so many others can't afford shelter, or must sacrifice essentials to do so.

[mcollier]

4. I wonder what the numbers will look like next quarter.

maybe witht that tax rebate I'll go run out and buy a house...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Y1qcma0Q4">Bush is FUBARed

[tsdraegeth]

5. .

Empty homes no one can "afford" to live in, rotting food no one can "afford" to eat, unemployed people with labor no one can "afford" to buy. What a shamefully broken system. Hunting and gathering is starting to look better. Wherever will we find our prey animals and food stores?

[tbyg52]

6. Hey, tsdraegeth!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

Yep, isn't it swell nowadays.....?

[KamaAina]

7. When the vacancy rate in New Orleans went off the charts, people started squatting

this was pre-K, obviously, when the vacancy rate there was just obscene, as hard as that is to imagine these days. My roommate left to go squat a vacant house just a few blocks away. Not even in a really crummy neighborhood, either. That way his daughter finally got to move back in with him.

[corporatemedia]

8. "So?"

[intheflow]

9. And still they're kocking down cute 1920's bungalows

in my neighborhood to build obscene McMansions. The builders buy the bungalows for about $250K (obscenely overpriced themselves), then sell the McMansions for a half million. I see many that were built within the last 8 years that now have for sale signs in front of them. Even the brand-new ones have for sale signs up for quite a while. There one house in particular that takes up what used to be three whole lots, and there isn't a lot of yard space. It was just finished in the last 9 months, never saw a for sale sign on it, so I think the family I saw moving in must have had it custom built. I saw on Friday that it's for sale. :(

[Stalwart]

10. Help Me With the Math

Population of USA today 28 April 2008: 303,959,830 million people.

Round to 300 million

2.9% of owner occupied homes now sitting empty.

Round to 3%

Makes it easier but big numbers are still hard.

Total number of vacant US properties mentioned in the story = 18.6 million (a record!)

In the context of the report I figure that means the number of owner occupied houses sitting empty is 18.6 million houses. (An empty owner occupied house?)

How many total (owner occupied plus owner unoccupied) houses are there in the USA?

That is where I need some help.

I guess it would be equal to the total number of houses in the USA?

Big numbers are just to hard to figure.

Yes, I read the full story. The numbers still do not click with me.

Maybe there is another way to look at it:

If every person in the USA had an owner occupied house and lived in it by themselves (300 million people in 300 million houses) but 3% of the houses were owner unoccupied that would be 9 million owner unoccupied homes, explaining 9 million street people that are still owners (but not long) of those owner unoccupied homes.

However: We know that there are 18.6 million vacant properties because the story says so.

Conclusion: There really are more street people than we ever realized!

Forget renters because that only complicates the math unless they are renting the owner unoccupied houses but then of course they would not be vacant but they would remain owner unoccupied. Unless the owner is renting back their own home to themselves but then they loose the tax break on interest.

Any math professors out there that can explain the numbers to me?

I have been fed so much crap for so long I can't figure how to figure for myself.

Forget it, I will just take what they say as true if I can't do the math.

Just like most everybody else.

[gristy]

11. Are you saying the numbers don't add up?

I think I agree with you.

18.6 million homes divided by .028 = 664 million homes

Every person in the country would have to own two homes for that to be right. And you'd still have 64 million homes unaccounted for.

[Stalwart]

12. Its the Census Bureau

They have to be better than me with numbers so I guess it has to add up somehow but it beats me.

[skids]

16. 18.6 is total "vacant properties"

2.9% is "vacant owner-occupied properties" as much of an oxymoron as that is.

It doesn't make up the difference, but do note:

Citing Census Bureau statistics from 2003, NAR states that there are 43.8 million second homes in this country; 6.6 million are vacation homes and 37.2 million are investment properties. There are a total of 72.1 million owner occupied homes. That would indicate that 62% of the housing stock in the United States is owned by persons who own other homes or housing units

Earlier studies had indicated that 6.6 million housing units were second homes. Note that figure is identical to the number of homes the Census Bureau considers to be vacation homes. Thus, earlier studies may have overlooked the purchase and ownership of investment units. Census data indicates the latter may total 37.2 million units.

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/382005_Second_Homes.asp

The 18.6M figure probably includes rental units and may even include commercial lots.

[Festivito]

18. Always question the numbers. And it's a good question.

Using #16's numbers.

44M second homes
72M owner-occupied
ADDING =
116M homes
INTERESTING, eh?

72M OO
TIMES 3% of OO homes =
2M unoccupied OO homes
NOT THE STATISTIC THEY NAMED

18.6M "vacant" "properties"(read: include commercial properties, but keep in mind it's an assumption.)
MINUS 2M un-OO homes =
16.6M
MINUS 7M second homes =
10M vacant non-OO, non-second properties
HMM: 10M COMMERCIAL and RENTALS VACANT?
HMM: 2M HOMES VACANT
NOTE 44M SECOND HOMES DON'T COUNT AS PROBLEM

ADDING WHAT COUNTS =
12M Homes, rentals, commercial properties vacant. (Keeping in mind the assumption.)

I hope that was fun, and not to difficult to follow.

Still seems high. But, then again, empty strip malls have been part of our landscape in Michigan for years and years.

[dysfunctional press]

13. around us, there's also a lot of empty lots that were meant to be neighborhoods of new houses...

there are 4 MAJOR developments within 5 minutes of us that have broken ground in the past 2 years- most of them have almost no houses- just HUGH swaths of subdivided properties, the lots marked with surveyor stakes- no houses, no lawns, no trees- just mud and rocks...and paved streets, curbs, and streetlights; playgrounds, schools, ponds with fountains- they put in the infrastructure, since the bonds have been issued and the taxpayers bilkled...but NOBODY is buying the lots or putting up houses.

[Trajan]

14. I walked from a home in 1993 .....

After the first Bush and his boss; Ronnie Raygun, fucked up the economy .....

Them, and the other GOP idiots .... (And their friends in the Democratic Party too)

[Doctor_J]

15. The fundamentals are strong, per the MBA President

stay the course.

[Snarkoleptic]

17. Holy sheepshit

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x38249

[Stalwart]

19. Doing Math in My Head

The point of the story is record collapse and foreclosure and housing vacancy.

It talks about owner occupied vacancy rates but only mentions one solid number: 18.6 million houses vacant creating the impression that 18.6 million houses are empty related to collapse and foreclosure which is not true. That is most obviously not probably true to anyone giving it a second thought, but few would or did.

The story blatantly mixes apples and oranges to such an extent that the authors/editors either failed math or have a scare agenda to support with manipulating the use of factual numbers. Easy to do when nobody thinks.

The real numbers are here: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr108/q108tab4.html

129 million houses in the USA. 111 million houses occupied by people. 18 million unoccupied, nobody living in them for any reason.

Almost 14 million of those 18 million houses are empty year around, no reason given.

About 2 Million empty houses are actually for sale.

Another 1 million awaiting occupancy due to either sale or rental agreement.

No actual number given in the census report as to how many houses are for sale but occupied by those selling them, probably the most common situation. The reference is a census inventory report

The story should have stated the actual number of houses on the market for sale and the total difference compared to the number normally for sale. It could then make some speculation or conclusion about collapse and foreclosure based on the difference or state some facts from somewhere about the difference and how it relates to foreclosure and collapse.

That difference is a whole lot less than 18.6 million vacant houses would indicate and the story would have us believe is in some way representative of a number relating to or describing the magnitude of the collapse and foreclosure problem.

Bad story.

By design or ignorance?

The census report is a housing inventory described by either occupancy or vacancy. It has little direct relationship to foreclosure and collapse, although the story would make the implication it does with some misleading amazing number and some association with rates related to the report.

MSM BS.