Good News: Rental Vacancy Down

In the good news column, national rental vacancy rates fell a bit to 10.3 percent, down from 11.1 percent a year earlier. However, since first quarter 2008, the measure has only been below 10 percent one time (third quarter 2008). Courtesy of NAHB

The third quarter Housing Vacancy Survey provided mixed news on the rental and homeownership front.

The increase in occupied units has been in rental units while the number of owner occupied units over the past year has fallen until the most recent quarter. This suggests that most of the new households have moved into rental units.

Further, foreclosures are probably putting downward pressure on the number of owner occupied units and adding to the number of occupied rental units.

- Courtesy of NAHB