Despite housing shortage, America has 5.6 million vacant homeswhat gives?

We’ve all heard that sky-high home prices in the U.S.are due in part to a major housing shortage.But a new study from LendingTree found there are actually millions of vacant properties out there—5.6 million, to be exact.LendingTree ranked the nation’s 50 largest metros by their share of unoccupied homes and revealed that, on average, 7.37% of homes in these metros are currently unoccupied.So have we all just been sold a bill of goods about this “housing shortage”? Well, not exactly.“Just because there are millions of homes sitting vacant across the nation’s 50 largest metros, that doesn’t mean that the U.S.

has an overabundance of housing,” says LendingTree senior economist Jacob Channel.But Channel does concede in his analysis that “with home prices as high as they are, it may seem strange that so many homes in the nation’s largest metros are sitting empty.”Millions of vacant properties in the U.S.“doesn’t mean millions of abandoned and dilapidated homes are lining metro streets,” notes Channel.He says vacant homes can be—and usually are—unoccupied for many reasons beyond being uninhabitable.The top reason that units are unoccupied is because they are currently offered for rent.“Rental vacancy has climbed in recent years as rental inventory has managed to recover significantly in many markets,” says Realtor.com senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones.

“This means that more rentals sit empty, waiting to be rented.”The second reason for vacancy is that properties are used for seasonal, recreational, or occasional purposes.This includes vacant units used on weekends or for other occasions; seasonal units such as beach cottages or hunting cabins; and interval ownership units such as timeshares.“A house can be considered vacant even if it’s only empty for a relatively short time, like if it’s a vacation home not being used,” Channel says.The third reason units are unoccupied is for personal/family reas...