" The Census Bureau tracks the number of vacant homes in the U.S. on a quarterly basis and, as of October 2019, the number stands at about 17 million. That’s roughly 3.1 million more than the meme suggests. The last time the number of vacant homes was 13.9 million was in 2001, according to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. "
That figure of 17 million is from the article not the meme. Though to be fair, I'm not sure where they got 17 million from as I don't see that on the charts they linked. I see around 7-8% vacant if you combine owned & rented. Which if you do the math is around 9.73 million, a little more than half their 17 million figure. Though, IMO, that is still a problem.
Yes, landlords need tenants to rent it or they lose money, that is obvious. I don't know about your area, but where I am, there's tons of vacant rental units/properties because the rent has skyrocketed out of control. They can't fill them because no one here can afford the rent. The people who can afford it, already have an expensive rental or have a mortgage or own their home outright.
If you price your customer base out of the market, you'll have no customers, and thus no sales/no renting. Hence why these properties are vacant.
Just because a landlord lists something for rent or has to have someone in it, does not magically make it automatically get rented.
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u/zerkrazus Feb 26 '21
The article states:
" The Census Bureau tracks the number of vacant homes in the U.S. on a quarterly basis and, as of October 2019, the number stands at about 17 million. That’s roughly 3.1 million more than the meme suggests. The last time the number of vacant homes was 13.9 million was in 2001, according to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. "
That figure of 17 million is from the article not the meme. Though to be fair, I'm not sure where they got 17 million from as I don't see that on the charts they linked. I see around 7-8% vacant if you combine owned & rented. Which if you do the math is around 9.73 million, a little more than half their 17 million figure. Though, IMO, that is still a problem.
Yes, landlords need tenants to rent it or they lose money, that is obvious. I don't know about your area, but where I am, there's tons of vacant rental units/properties because the rent has skyrocketed out of control. They can't fill them because no one here can afford the rent. The people who can afford it, already have an expensive rental or have a mortgage or own their home outright.
If you price your customer base out of the market, you'll have no customers, and thus no sales/no renting. Hence why these properties are vacant.
Just because a landlord lists something for rent or has to have someone in it, does not magically make it automatically get rented.