Delinquencies rise, vacancies stay flat

Although delinquency rates have been steadily rising over the past few years, vacancy and foreclosure rates are seeing little movement, according to a new industry report.

Nearly 1.4 million homes, or 1.33%, residential properties in the United States were vacant at the beginning of the year, virtually the same as the 1.32% rate recorded in the first quarter of last year, Attom's latest Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report found.

More than 230,000 of the country's 104.8 million residential properties were in the process of foreclosure at the time of the report, just up from the nearly 229,000 in the fourth quarter of last year. Of those, 7,540 properties, or 3.27%, were "zombies," meaning the homeowner abandoned them before the end of the foreclosure process, according to the report.

"It will come as no surprise to anyone shopping for a home that vacancy rates remain low. That is one reason home prices have continued to rise despite ongoing affordability challenges," Attom CEO Rob Barber said in a press release Thursday. "It is also encouraging for both neighborhoods and the broader market that even among properties in foreclosure, vacancy rates remain relatively low."

Home-price growth flattened at the end of last year, but was still increasing at a roughly 1.5% annual pace. While affordability has been improving, home prices remain historically high and other outside pressures persist.

"Americans are contending with other obstacles on the road to buying a home, like nerves about layoffs and economic uncertainty," said Chen Zhao, Redfin's head of economics research, in a press release Wednesday.

Regional differences in vacancy rates

Northeast states saw the lowest vacancy rates, highlighted by New Hampshire at 0.3%, Vermont at 0.4% and New Jersey and Connecticut at 0.5%. The states with the highest home vacancy rates were Oklahoma (2.4%), Kansas (2.4%) and Alabama (2.2%), the report found.

Cities in the Midwest posted the highest zombie rates. Of the 27 metropolitan areas with sufficient data to analyze, Cleveland, Baltimore and St. Louis recorded zombie rates of 9.9%, 9.3% and 8.6%, respectively. New York (1.6%), Philadelphia (1.7%) and Los Angeles (2.2%) had the lowest zombie rates.

The number of zombie properties fell quarter over quarter in 28 states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Kansas, which were down 31.1%, 25.6% and 23.5%, respectively. Maryland saw by far the largest increase at 45.6%.

Properties held by institutional investors opposed to individual owners were also more likely to be vacant, as roughly 3.5% of the 25.2 million homes owned by large investors were vacant.