Home Vacancy Rates Decline Slightly

By:: Peter King | April 26, 2010

Vacancies for both homeowner and rental housing declined in the first quarter of 2009, according to figures released today by the Census Department.

The vacancy rate on homeowner property dropped to 2.6 percent nationwide, down from 2.7 percent in the last quarter of 2009. The vacancy rate on rental property also dropped by a tenth of a percent, to 10.6 percent from 10.7 percent last quarter.

Nationally, 85.5 percent of all residential properties were occupied in the first quarter of the year and 14.5 percent were vacant. Of the vacant units, 3.5 percent of the housing stock was seasonal properties and 11.0 percent were for year-round use.

Owner-occupied housing made up 57.4 percent of the housing stock and occupied rental units made up 28.1 percent, for a total of 100 percent among the four categories listed.

About one-third of all vacant units were being held off the market, making up 5.4 percent of all U.S. housing stock.

The homeowner vacancy rate remains well above the norms from prior to the crash of the housing market and subsequent economic downturn. Homeowner vacancies held almost uniformly stable at 1.7 percent from 2002 through 2004 before beginning to edge upward as the housing market began to weaken in 2005 and rising sharply in 2006.

The homeowner vacancy rate topped out at 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008 and again in the fourth quarter of the same year and has improved slightly since then, despite the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

The picture on rental vacancies is more complex. Rental vacancies gradually rose from the late 1990s through 2004 as many renters took advantage of easy mortgage credit to buy homes. The vacancy rate, which was as low as 7.5 percent in the first quarter of 1997, hit 10.4 percent in the first quarter of 2004.

The rental vacancy rate then began to decline over the next two years at the same time homeowner vacancies were rising, hitting 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 2006. It then began to gradually increase again as the economy slowed down, topping out at 11.1 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

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