However, those figures are misconstrued as thinking these units are available for someone else to use.
The data comes from the US Census and includes unoccupied homes for sale, rental property, vacation homes that are used only part time if not used at the time of the survey, and residences that may be only temporarily vacant. Vacation homes are often in locations where there is no sizeable local job market – thus, even if they went for sale, these would not make housing available to those who need a home near a good job market.
Approximately 89.6 percent of the housing units in the United States in the second quarter 2025 were
occupied and 10.4 percent were vacant. Owner-occupied housing units made up 58.2 percent of total housing units, while renter-occupied units made up 31.3 percent of the inventory. Vacant year-round units comprised 8.1 percent of total housing units, while 2.3 percent were vacant for seasonal use. Approximately 2.4 percent of the total units were vacant for rent, 0.6 percent were vacant for sale only and 0.6 percent were rented or sold but not yet occupied. Vacant units that were held off market comprised 4.4 percent of the total housing stock. Of these, 1.4 percent were for occasional use, 0.7 percent were temporarily occupied by persons with usual residence elsewhere (URE) and 2.3 percent were vacant for a variety of other reasons.
The homeowner vacancy is about average for recent years:
There was a peak of 69% during the Fed’s low interest and subprime mortgage scandal earlier in the century – when zero down loans became “a thing”, and eventually led to the downfall of major banks.
Since 2008, new housing construction has lagged demand, likely leading to today’s inflated home prices.
