Vacancy Rate Jumps

The number of vacant single-family homes for sale jumped to 2.1 million in the fourth quarter, a 10.5% increase from the level in the third quarter, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, showing that homeowners and investors continue to have trouble selling into a slow market.The National Association of Home Builders has been keeping an eye on vacancies in existing homes because they make it harder for builders to get rid of their inventories of unsold newly constructed homes. The Census Bureau report indicates that nearly half of the homes for sale are vacant. "There continues to be an overhang in the housing market that needs to be worked through," said NAHB senior economist Bernard Markstein, which is why the homebuilders don't see the downturn in the housing market bottoming out until the second quarter. The Census Bureau report also shows that homeownership rates have not changed much in the past four quarters. The national homeownership rate was 68.9% as of Dec. 31, and the homeownership rates for blacks and Hispanics were 48.2% and 49.5%, respectively.