The Real Estate Bloggers

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:24 PM PST

If you are still trying to understand why the housing market in the United States is in trouble just read the following paragraph.

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

The number of vacant homes for rent fell by 493 thousand, as rental demand rose. 471,000 homes are listed as “Held off Market” about half for temporary use, but the other half are likely foreclosures. And no, the shadow inventory isn’t just 200,000, it’s far higher than that.

So think about it. Eleven percent of the houses in America are empty. This as builders start to get more bullish, and renting apartments becomes ever more popular. Vacancies in the apartment sector have been falling steadily and dramatically, why? Because we’re still recovering emotionally from the toll of the housing crash. via Diana Olick at CNBC

11 percent or 18.4 million homes in the United States are empty.

To put this in perspective there is only 329,000 homes expected to be built this year.

So lets do the math.

Used Vacant homes / New Home Construction

18,400,000 / 329,000

This means there are 55 EMPTY HOMES for every NEW HOME BEING BUILT THIS YEAR.

Now lets do one last bit of math:

Used Vacant Homes / Home Sales for 2010

18,400,000 / 5,000,000

There is 3.86 empty homes for every home sold last year.

Gulp…

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18.4 Million Vacant Homes in the U.S.A.