Investors own almost 900,000 vacant homes: Attom

Real estate investors own almost 900,000 vacant properties nationwide, a share greater than the number of empty homes across the rest of the housing market, Attom reports. 

The vacancy rate nationwide is steady in the third quarter compared to past years, according to the property analytics firm's latest study. The number of homes that have been abandoned during the foreclosure process, referred to as "zombie foreclosures," meanwhile ticked up compared to the second quarter and year-ago periods. 

"While there remain some markets with worryingly high rates of vacancies, as a whole it appears that the nation's buyers are quickly filling homes that become available," said Rob Barber, CEO of Attom, in a press release. 

Once-tight inventory is loosening up nationwide, although home buyers still face steep affordability hurdles. 

In all, there are 1,385,901 empty residential properties across the country, or 1.3% of all homes, Attom said. Among the 24.9 million dwellings owned by investors, 882,336, or 3.6% of them are vacant. Midwestern states had the largest shares of empty investor-owned homes, led by Indiana with 7.2%, while rural states had the least amount, with just 0.9% of such properties in New Hampshire. 

Investors who devoured larger shares of home purchases during the refinance boom remain optimistic about their prospects despite current economic uncertainty. They're still feeling some strain, including realizing smaller profits on fix-and-flip projects. 

Zombie properties inch up but remain miniscule

Of the over 222,000 properties currently in a foreclosure process, 3.38%, or 7,519 are unoccupied. The rate is up slightly from the second quarter, and greater than the 3.14% of zombie properties last fall, according to Attom. 

Smaller Midwestern cities had the largest shares of zombie properties, led by Wichita, Kansas where 12.7% of homes facing foreclosure have been abandoned. Other midsized cities across the nation touted ultra-low rates of empty, foreclosed homes, including zero in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Most states where zombie properties grew the most annually still had under 100 such homes statewide.

The zip code with the highest zombie foreclosure rate was 91001 in Los Angeles, where 80% of homes have been abandoned. That area includes a large portion of Altadena, where the Eaton Fire in January razed numerous city blocks. A foreclosure moratorium for certain government-backed loans in that area expired in July.