Headlines may lament about a lack of inventory, but new numbers out from LendingTree find that a huge number of homes are currently sitting vacant across the largest metro areas in the U.S. Nearly 5.5 million homes sit vacant across the country, with tens of thousands of housing units sitting empty in each of the metros featured in the study.
New Orleans, Miami and Tampa have the highest vacancy rates, according to LendingTree, with more than 600,000 vacant housing units. Riverside was the only California city to make the top 10 highest vacancy rates, coming in at no. 5.
Vacancy rates are lowest in Minneapolis, Austin and Washington, D.C. The three are are the only metros in the study with vacancy rates below 5 percent. San Jose rounded out the top 10 cities with the lowest vacancy rates.
On average, 26.61 percent of the vacant housing units across the nation’s 50 largest metros are empty because they’re for rent. An average of 17.04 percent are vacant because they’re only used part time, while an average of 7.98 percent are empty because they’re being repaired or renovated.