15% of houses in US vacant
What does it mean for the economy when 19 million homes are currently vacant? According to Bloomberg.com, there are 19 million vacant homes out of a total of 130 million available housing units. While some of these are second homes / vacation homes, there are millions of properties for sale or rent that are currently empty. Many of the vacant seasonal homes are likely to be less often used by their owners, as some may have incomes decreasing in the coming months.
There is also the shadow inventory of homes currently reported as being occupied by homeowners in foreclosure. According to CNBC reports, “despite the record number, there are far more vacant homes out there than is being reported.”
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[...] This should come as no surprise to my readers, since we first brought up the subject of the looming shadow inventory more than a year ago today, and referenced it more than a dozen times since then. S&P also [...]
[...] is another batch of foreclosures not easily seen, sometimes called the “shadow inventory.” These are homes in various stages of delinquency or default, sometimes already bank owned [...]