Current Housing Indicators |
| CURRENT | PREVIOUS | ||
| Existing Home Sales | 4.49m | ▼ | 4.74m |
| New Home Sales | 309,000 | ▼ | 344,000 |
| Housing Starts | 583,000 | ▲ | 477,000 |
| Building Permits | 547,000 | ▲ | 531,000 |
| HMI | 9 | UNCH | 9 |
| Existing Home Prices | $170,300 | ▼ (annually) | $199,800 |
| New Home Prices | $201,100 | ▼ (annually) | $232,400 |
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Realty Check
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Home Vacancy Rates Rise
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Repres Foreclosed Home |
Year-over-year, the number of vacant housing units in this country rose from 17,890,000 to 18, 627,000 (keep in mind only about 14 million of those are year-round, the rest are seasonal, i.e. vacation homes, etc.). So as a whole that’s a 4 percent increase in the number of vacant homes, not enormous, as the foreclosure crisis might suggest.
But a very nice number-cruncher at the Census explained: In doing the count, the Census folks go out and eyeball the house. If someone is living in it, then it’s occupied. That means that a house that’s in foreclosure would not be counted as vacant if there is still someone living in it. I happen to know that many homeowners stay long after the eviction notice comes to the front door. Also, there are many municipalities that are no longer evicting renters from foreclosed properties, again, keeping the home in the “occupied” column.
One thing I do note is that when they break it down region to region, there is a big bump in the owner and renter vacancy rate in the West, that is the big housing bust markets in Vegas, California, Arizona and Nevada. Lots of empty houses pulling down values all around them.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
