USA Today: No one home: 1 in 9 housing units vacant

[marmar]

No one home: 1 in 9 housing units vacant
By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY


A record 1 in 9 U.S. homes are vacant, a glut created by the housing boom and subsequent collapse.

"The numbers are further documentation of the gravity of the housing problem," says Nicolas Retsinas, head of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "This inventory is delaying any kind of housing recovery."

The surge in empty houses, condominiums and apartments is creating a wave of problems for communities desperate to shore up property values and tax revenues that pay for services. Vacant homes create upkeep and safety problems that ripple through neighborhoods.

"It has a contagion effect," Retsinas says. "A house that is vacant is often a house that is less well kept up."

A construction frenzy began pushing the vacancy rate up in 2005 but empty homes sold quickly at that time. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-02-12-vacancy12_N.htm?csp=34

[Xenotime]

1. Why aren't there programs that let people stay in these homes until they are sold?!?

More waste for the World to see.

[Renew Deal]

7. Good luck getting a community to support that.

People don't want homeless shelters in their neighborhoods. It's bad for home values.

[izquierdista]

2. There could be one less that's vacant

On edit: make that a LOT less that are vacant.

[blindpig]

3. Given that, it is a obscenity that any are homeless.

Could there be a greater indictment of a system which puts profits over human needs?

[ThomWV]

4. Then why haven't rental costs collapses?

[Skink]

5. Rental costs continue to rise.

[Renew Deal]

8. Not in NY

Report: Manhattan Rental Costs Down

http://gothamist.com/2008/03/20/report_manhatta.php

[marmar]

9. Not true.....

http://www.rgemonitor.com/globalmacro-monitor/255301/rents_dropping_in_major_metro_areas_-_not_good_for_the_macroeconomy



Rents dropping in major metro areas - not good for the macroeconomy
Rebecca Wilder | Jan 26, 2009


This was bound to happen, with foreclosures on the rise and rock-bottom home sales going to the lowest bidder. And that bidder is likely a property investor, who will rent out the property until market conditions improve to re-sell. Well, guess what: this is driving down rents across the country's top metro areas. From Business Week:

The economic crisis has opened up opportunities for apartment tenants. The inventory of vacant apartments is expanding, and rents are dropping quickly in major metros across the country

For renters with leases about to expire, it's time to negotiate. Landlords are working extra hard these days to keep units filled.

Of course, your ability to hold on to an apartment—especially a luxury unit—depends on how secure you feel about your own job. Americans lost about 2.6 million jobs in 2008 (mostly in the final quarter of the year) and are likely to lose millions more this year. They are losing money on stocks and other investments and are cutting back on costs by downsizing and moving in with family members or roommates as they hunker down for a deep recession.

Landlords, as a result, are forced to offer discounts to fill vacancies. Apartment vacancies spiked in September after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the eruption of the financial crisis.

Sounds great. Right? Wrong. This will likely put downward pressure on the CPI, since owners' equivalent rent of primary residence accounts for 24% of the construction of the CPI (see Table 1 in the BLS' news release). Not good for the deflation bears.

Furthermore, mortgage rates must fall to entice would-be buyers out of the renting market and into the housing market. Falling rents could be bad for the housing recovery. The feedback loop is tight in this recession.

[Christa]

6. And to think hundreds of thousands live in tent cities nt