The Tampa Bay area may still be a hot real estate market, but it turns out that many of the homes sold in Florida are empty. A study by Clever Real Estate shows that many top metros in the United States have high levels of vacancy. In fact, four cities in Florida have a vacancy percentage that exceeds the overall U.S. vacancy rate of 11.6%. The reasons for these vacancies rate are varied but vacation may have something to do with it.
Vacant cities
At the moment, there are more than 16 million housing units in the U.S. are vacant. Americans are looking for cities with affordable living solutions, but some areas have more options than others. A majority of the areas with high vacancies tend to be located in tourist-centric regions. In these place vacancies are associated with unused seasonal homes. This is probably why four out of the seven cities with vacancy rates exceeding the national rate are in Florida.
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In other regions, industrial decline, high unemployment, and economic depression cause high vacancy rates.
Here are the cities where the vacancy rate exceeds the national average:
- Orlando, Florida (15.27%)
- Miami (14.75%)
- Tampa, Florida (13.71%)
- Birmingham, Alabama (13.23%)
- New Orleans (13.1%)
- Riverside, California (12.13%)
- Jacksonville, Florida (11.87%)
Vacancy causes
These metros are in areas with a lot of vacation homes and short-term rentals, or they have been affected by significant natural disasters in recent memory. Natural disasters, for example, can lead to economic decline in affected areas that reverberate for years.
In metros where homes are more affordable to purchase, the rental vacancy rate may be higher. This may also be the case in tourist areas where seasonal rentals are common. Some studies even suggest that short-term rentals contribute to housing crises in metros where they are common.
Vacancy rates should be analyzed by what’s causing them, which can differ by location. In some areas, high vacancy rates correlate with a high cost of living. That, in turn, could raise the homelessness rate as home and rent prices outpace income.
Ultimately, the average rental vacancy rate is slightly higher in cities where home ownership costs haven’t grown from 2000 to 2020. However, the cost of living is higher in metros where home values have increased over this time period.
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