There are many ways to assess the trajectory of the American housing market, but two important indicators are the total number of vacant homes and the vacancy rate, which varies across the country. According to the Census Bureau, there were approximately 15.1 million vacant homes nationwide in 2022.
These vacant homes, which include rentals, represent 10.5% of the country’s total housing inventory. The number of vacant homes in the United States peaked at nearly 19 million in the wake of the 2008 housing crisis, but homeownership has recovered since that peak — the number of vacant homes in the US has declined more than 20%.
