Vacancy rates of for-sale homes on rise

If there’s a house in your neighborhood that’s been for sale for a while, there’s a good chance that nobody’s home.

The number of unoccupied houses around the country has jumped sharply in the last year, according to government figures. For more than a decade, vacancy rates for so-called homeowner housing (as opposed to properties intended to be rentals) have held steady at about 1.7%, but they crept up to 2.1% in 2006. They’re at a record 2.8% of all such homes, according to a new report from the U.S. census.

The report looked at the vacant homes that are firmly known to be for sale. There were about 1.58 million a year ago. Now, there are about 2.18 million, a nearly 38% increase.

Some analysts blame the bloat on speculators who bought in the boom but were unable to flip the houses for a profit, so the properties are sitting empty. Others are optimistic, though, that sales are starting to pick up, and expect the vacancy rate to improve in the next quarter.