Number of Vacant Homes Stable from Last Year

Washington, DC, July 27, 2009--More than 18.7 million homes stood empty in the U.S. during the second quarter, a number largely unchanged from a year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau said.

More than 14 percent of homes were vacant in the period, the Census said. Home values dropped 33 percent since 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index.

The percentage of all U.S. homes empty and for sale, known as the vacancy rate, fell to 2.5 percent in the quarter. It hit a high of 2.9 percent in the first and fourth quarters of 2008, the Census Bureau said.

The vacancy rate fell slightly as the number of homes on the market declined because they were sold or because their owners gave up trying to market them.

There were 130.8 million homes in the U.S. in the second quarter, the Census Bureau said. In addition to the 1.9 million empty properties for sale, the report counted 4.4 million vacant homes for rent and 4.6 million seasonal properties that are only used for part of the year.