According to this story in USA Today one in nine American homes is vacant. 10.1% of rental units are vacant and 2.9% of homeowner units are sitting empty, and the total number is over 14 million units nation wide. Housing units worth over $500,000 are just as likely to be empty as those under $100,000. 9% of units built after 2000 are empty compared to 2% of older homes. In other words the units sitting empty aren't just squats in crumbling industrial cities, and in fact they are more likely to be developments that promised a piece of the American dream in the newly landscaped suburbs and exurbs.
But there are always the optimists. Real estate licensing exams in New York still have plenty of takers. I like optimists because they're the engines that keep the country going. I figure if these folks can make a go of it now then they deserve every success that comes their way.
Optimists also look at the glass as half full. Just look at the recent foreclosure news here in the Triad. One article in the Greensboro News & Record focuses on the fact that foreclosures in the Greensboro/High Point markets rose 28% from 2007 to 2008. Yet in the Business Journal we find this article that tells us that foreclosures in the Triad are down 62% from January 2008 to January 2009, and that follows on the heels of a 23% drop from December 2007 to December 2008. In other words we could finally be finding the bottom of the housing decline. Guess which article the optimists will focus on?
As for commercial real estate. Ugh, let's just stop here and have a nice Valentines Day.
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