Home vacancy rate falls to pre-housing bubble levels

The home vacancy rate – based on the number of unoccupied properties and those for sale – shrank to 1.9 percent in the third quarter from 2.1 percent in the prior three-month period.

The Commerce Department cited increased demand for housing and some economic improvements for driving the rate to the lowest point in seven years.

The share of empty U.S. homes for rent, meanwhile, was unchanged at 8.6 percent, matching the lowest level in more than a decade.

The nation’s rate of homeownership also held steady, according to Commerce, remaining at 65.5 percent in the second quarter. However, the number is a decline from 66.3 percent during the same three months of 2011, and from a peak homeownership rate of 69.2 percent in July 2004.

“Even with the housing recovery well under way, the share of Americans who own their own home remains more or less at a 16-year low,” noted Paul Diggle of Capital Economics.

Source: Reuters (10/30/12) Chadbourn, Margaret

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