In a sign that tight inventory may be loosening, 54 percent of U.S. housing markets saw an uptick in the annual rate of vacant properties in the third quarter of this year, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’
2017 U.S. Residential Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report. Nearly 1.4 million homes—or 1.58 percent of all residential properties—were vacant at the end of the third quarter. That’s down slightly from a rate of 1.63 percent a year prior.
However, vacant property rates increased from a year ago in 81 of the 149 metro areas tracked in the report. “There is evidence that the ultra-tight inventory environment in some red-hot markets is beginning to ease just a bit, with vacant property rates nudging higher in markets such as San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Denver,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions.
Among metros with at least 100,000 residential properties, the areas with the highest vacancy rates in the third quarter were:
- Flint, Mich.: 6.89%
- Youngstown, Ohio: 4.49%
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas: 3.80%
- Detroit: 3.77%
- Mobile, Ala.: 3.77%
Among metros with at least 1,000 residential properties, the three ZIP codes with the highest vacancy rates were all in the city of Gary, Ind.: 46409 (30.26 percent), 46407 (29.62 percent), and 46402 (29.53 percent). Rounding out the top five ZIP codes with the highest vacancy rates were 48505 in Flint, Mich., (29%) and 44507 in Youngstown, Ohio, (25.97%).
Source: ATTOM Data Solutions
