l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 I usually find the quarterly homeowner vacancy and homeownership report from
Census pretty lackluster, but the latest one released this morning was
anything but.
Strawberry Mill Valley
America's home ownership rate, after holding steady for a while, took a
pretty big plunge in Q4, from 66.9 percent to 66.5 percent. That's down from
the 2004 peak of 69.2 percent and the lowest level since 1998.
Homeownership is falling at an alarming pace, despite the fact that home
prices have fallen, affordability is much improved and inventories of new
and existing homes are still running quite high.
Bargains abound, but few are interested or eligible to take advantage.
More concerning than the home ownership rate is the vacancy rate. The Census
tables don't tell the entire story, but they tell a lot of it. Of the
nearly 131 million housing units in this country, 112.5 million are occupied
. 74.8 million are owned, and that's only dropped by about 30 thousand in
the past year. 38 million are rented, but that's up by over a million year
over year. That means more new households are choosing to rent.
Now to vacancies. There were 18.4 million vacant homes in the U.S. in Q4 '10
(11 percent of all housing units vacant all year round), which is actually
an improvement of 427,000 from a year ago, but not for the reasons you'd
think.
The number of vacant homes for rent fell by 493 thousand, as rental demand
rose. 471,000 homes are listed as "Held off Market" about half for temporary
use, but the other half are likely foreclosures. And no, the shadow
inventory isn't just 200,000, it's far higher than that.
So think about it. Eleven percent of the houses in America are empty. This
as builders start to get more bullish, and renting apartments becomes ever
more popular. Vacancies in the apartment sector have been falling steadily
and dramatically, why? Because we're still recovering emotionally from the
toll of the housing crash.
Younger Americans have seen what home ownership has done to their friends
and families, and many want no part of it. Credit has become very nearly
elitist. Home prices, whatever your particular data provider preference
might be, are still falling. | c******t
发帖数: 1017 | |
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