[chopchop0]

Wow....

Nearly 20% of Florida homes are vacant - Mar. 18, 2011

On Thursday, the Census Bureau revealed that 18% -- or 1.6 million -- of the Sunshine State's homes are sitting vacant. That's a rise of more than 63% over the past 10 years.

Having this amount of oversupply on the market will keep home prices depressed and slow any recovery.

The vacancy problem is more dire in Florida than in any other bubble market: In California, only 8% of units were vacant, while Nevada, the state with the nation's highest foreclosure rate, had about 14% sitting empty. Arizona had a vacancy rate of about 16%.

In Florida, the worst-hit county is Collier -- home of Naples -- with a whopping 32% of homes empty. In Sarasota County, 23% of the housing stock sits vacant, while Lee County (Cape Coral) has a 30% vacancy rate. And Miami-Dade County has a vacancy rate of about 12%.

[Spring Hillian]

Can you say "no money down" ?

[sweepea]

Wow is right. Still dropping, and will continue to drop.

[beachmouse]

Okay, how did they control for the snowbirds owners who intentionally leave the home vacant from March/April through November? Are those homes included in that count provided or are they excluded from the description of the glut?

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by beachmouse

Okay, how did they control for the snowbirds owners who intentionally leave the home vacant from March/April through November? Are those homes included in that count provided or are they excluded from the description of the glut?

Yeah, sounds pretty exaggerated to me.

[bbronston]

My first take on this was "no way" is that right. Just looking at the graph posted of the top ten counties, only one is above 19% and these are the top ten counties. My own anecdotal experience also flies in the face of this. And Beachmouse is absolutley right. There are many homes that are vacant but not abandoned. I suspect this is useless information. In the Sarasota market, the inventory of homes actively on the market is at a six year low and February 2011 sales over February 2010 sales were up 27%.

[beachmouse]

The graph is only for the ten largest FL counties. I suspect that if you looked at some smaller very geezer-heavy areas like The Villages, Punta Gorda, Top of the World, etc. you'd get 30% or more vacancy rates, with most of those intentional seasonal vacancies for the snowbird set and not inherently a sign of a bad housing market.

Statistics are cool, but ultimately useless if you don't know or aren't comfortable with the underlying methodology.

[chopchop0]

Good points.

Didn't think about the snowbird factor and how it might affect the measurements. I'm surprised it was posted on CNN of all places.

[seeriously]

I think when they say, "sitting vacant," they mean without furnishings or running utilities. Otherwise, a house would be considered vacant every time a family walks out the door to face their day.

[ozlo]

Originally Posted by bbronston

In the Sarasota market, the inventory of homes actively on the market is at a six year low and February 2011 sales over February 2010 sales were up 27%.

That is because MANY of the vacant homes are not yet on the market as it looks bad on the banks' books. And some that were on the market have been pulled and are no longer being listed after sitting empty for a couple years.

I can absolutely vouch that there are still many neighborhoods in Pinellas with empty homes and/or tons of For Sale signs.