New Orleans

Five Million Homes Sit Empty Across Largest U.S. Metros

Posted on by TMN Editor
Nearly 5.5 million homes are sitting vacant in the U.S.’s largest metros, but they’re not going to save the housing market. LendingTree analyzed the latest U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data to find out what cities have the highest shares of unoccupied homes and why. Their survey found that 5,475,687 housing units are vacant in the country’s 50 biggest metros, with a vacancy rate of 8.02% across them all. New Orleans (16.11%), Miami (14.48%), and Tampa, FL (13.83%), have the highest vacancy rates, with 600,000 empty housing units vacant collectively. Minneapolis, Austin, and Washington, D.C., have the fewest vacancies. While it’s important to know the number of houses sitting empty, the reasons behind them are far more significant. LendingTree…

Is Home Ownership More Affordable Than Renting? It Depends.

Posted on by TMN Editor
By KIMBERLEY HAAS A report released this month suggests that despite rising home prices it is more affordable to own a median-priced house than to rent a three-bedroom property in a majority of the United States. ATTOM’s 2022 Rental Affordability Report used fair-market rent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and sales deed data in 1,154 counties to find that home ownership will be more affordable in a majority of the country again in 2022. Todd Teta, Chief Product Officer at ATTOM, said home ownership still remains the more affordable option for average workers because it takes up a smaller portion of their pay when the math is…