Ghost Towns

The decline of home prices seems set to accelerate as the number of vacant homes across the United States has increased by 1 million over the past year, up to a record setting 18.6 million, according to recently released government data.

Below is a quote from the Market Watch article which reported the news:

The vacancy rate for homes usually occupied by the owners rose to a record 2.3 million homes from 2.2 million in the fourth quarter, and was at about 1 million more than was typical before the housing bubble burst.

Analysts say the housing market won't recover until the glut of vacant homes on the market can be worked down. "There is clearly still substantial excess housing supply that will take time to work off," wrote economists for Goldman Sachs. "We think it unlikely that prices begin to stabilize until vacancy rates start declining."
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For all owner-occupied buildings with two to four housing units, 9.4% were vacant, up from 8.1% last quarter. In all owner-occupied buildings with five to nine housing units, the vacancy rate was 15.2%, up from 12.2% last quarter and double the rate of two years earlier.
Vacancy rates in larger condo buildings have fallen from 8.7% a year ago to 6.3%.

My Thoughts

I've read that entire subdivisions in parts of California (Stockton was among the cities mentioned) are literally ghost towns; where no one lives there. It's funny, I've frequently been called a doom sayer for some of my thoughts on this blog. One friend even went so far as to nick name me Dr. Doom; however, the more news like this that comes out, the less I think those comments will be made.