Residential Vacancies Declining Slowly

Res vacancies are in decline.

IRVINE, CA— Flint, MI , currently has the highest residential vacancy rate of any major market in the US, at 7.5% while San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA , is in a virtual tie with Fort Collins, CO , for the least vacancies at 0.2%.This is according to a report released today by RealtyTrac . The study also found that:

• Out of nearly 85 million residential properties (1 to 4 units) nationwide, more than 1.3 million (1.6%) were vacant in February 2016, down from 1.5 million vacant (1.8%) in September 2015.
• Investment properties are more likely to be vacant (4.3% vacancy rate nationwide), but investment property vacancy rates a rock-bottom 3% in more than one-third of U.S. markets — good news for landlords but bad news for renters in those markets.
• Vacant “zombie” foreclosures were down 4% from a year ago nationwide, but continue to increase in a minority of markets, mostly those with a protracted foreclosure process or high numbers of blighted properties.

Also among the five most-troubled markets were Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI, and Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX. In compiling the report, RealtyTrac matched its address-level property data for nearly 85 million U.S. residential properties — including foreclosure status, owner-occupancy status, and equity — against monthly updated data from the U.S. Postal Service indicating whether a property had been flagged as vacant by the postal carrier. Only metropolitan statistical areas with at least 100,000 residential properties were included in the rankings. See the full report from RealtyTrac.