Vacant Homes

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…