Vacant Houses at Highest Level in History
For those of us that track the housing market closely, some new data just came out this month indicating that the amount of vacant houses, as a percentage of the entire housing market, is at the highest level it’s ever been in recorded history. The speculation, if you will, is that speculators in the housing market have driven the number of vacant houses way up. Prior to 2006, the number of vacant houses had never exceeded 2%. As of February of 2007 the level was at 2.7%.
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What does this mean for consumers? My analysis shows that consumers (home buyers) will not be drastically affected by the fact that the percentage of vacant houses on the market is at a higher level. For buyers, there is the possibility of perhaps getting a little bit better deal if buying from a speculator who is panicking and wanting to get out of the market more quickly. I think this scenario is fairly unlikely, but the potential for it to exist is there.
As the saying goes, 80% of statistics are incorrect. There’s a pretty good chance also that this statistic is inflated, because more and more people have second homes as vacation homes. While vacation homes should not be recorded in this statistic, the Census Bureau could have possibly recorded some vacation homes as vacant homes accidentally. Obviously this would skew the numbers higher than they really are. My opinion is that it is a more likely scenario. While the amount people who are getting into flipping homes has increased, and do not think it has been enough to make the numbers go up as high as they are today.
I don’t have the statistics on places like Mauldin Real Estate in SC, but I will be looking into this and getting the numbers for you as quickly as possible.
Only time will tell but for consumers or even investors in the housing market, I just wanted to make you aware of the statistic, but not harp on it for too long. Have a nice day and if you have any questions please e-mail me and I’ll be glad to help!