Yesterday MSNBC.com posted a story on Nevada’s record number of empty homes. See Nevada’s boom ends in record number of empty homes According to newly released U.S. Census data, from 2000 to 2009, Nevada’s number of vacant homes more than doubled to 167,564.
It’s not necessarily the kind of press the state needs. But it’s nice to see Fernley get a mention as "the fastest growing city in Nevada from 2000 to 2010".
Carlo
167,564 empty houses? Staggering. Where are 167,564 new buyers going to come from? People are leaving Nevada, not coming.
Dirtbagger
Does anyone know what is the average number or percentage of homes are vacant during a more normal economic and environment?
Dirtbagger
Typos – should have said –
Does anyone know what is the average number or percentage of homes that are vacant during a more normal economic and housing environment?
Martin
167,564 seems like an an extraordinary number of empty houses. Are they all for sale?
That’s more than all the listings in the MLS for every city in Nevada combined, isn’t it?
Carney
Good point Martin. I can’t imagine there are 167,564 houses for sale in the whole state.
How many active listings are there for the NNMLS today? 2500?
MikeZ
Where in Nevada are these vacant homes? Story does not mention …
Guy Johnson
Carney,
Currently, there are 3,889 Active (non-pending) listings on our MLS (the Northern Nevada Regional MLS). Of those, 1,664 are listed as Vacant.
If I constrain the count to MLS Area #100 (“All Reno/Sparks”), the area on which I normally report data, there are currently 2,296 Active (non-pending) listings. Of those, 983 are listed as Vacant.
Phil
Are we sure that figure is correct? 167,564 empty houses is mind boggling. That number seems incomprehensible, even in these very bad housing market times in Nevada.
If this number is accurate, it gives a sobering new meaning to the term “shadow inventory”.
MikeZ
167,564 empty houses is mind boggling. That number seems incomprehensible, even in these very bad housing market times in Nevada.
The article says “US Census data.” The only relevant link I see on census.gov is the American Housing Survey from HUD but it doesn’t have any Nevada-specific data.
Was anyone here successful locating the actual data from US Census Bureau?
Phil
MikeZ,
The only thing I can find is a US Census Bureau 2010 report that says there are 1.1 million “dwelling units” in Nevada. A “dwelling unit” is defined as a house, a mobile home, an apartment, even a single room if it is intended for occupancy by one or more persons.
I cannot find a figure for just the number of houses in the state.
revelo
Calculated risk has a great entry on the subject of vacancies according to the Census:
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/03/census-2010-housing-occupancy-and.html
Nevada is up, but it is really the excess vacancies that matters. The excess is the total number of vacant units time the difference in % vacant between 2000 and 2010 (or 1990), since 2000 presumably was a time without an excess. That is, Nevada had about 9.2% units vacant in 2000 (and 10.1% vacant in 1990) versus 14.3% vacant in 2010, so the difference between 2010 and 2000 is 5.1%. Multiply 5.1% by the number vacant to get the number of excess vacant. The excess vacant for Nevada is thus 59,338.
Some states have very high vacancy rates for 2010, but those rates don’t indicate overbuilding and excess inventory if the vacancy rates for 2010 are close to the rates for 2000 and 1990. Rather, they indicate these states have always had lots of vacancies (presumably vacation homes). Maine and Vermont, for example.
billddrummer
MikeZ and Guy,
I’m tempted to believe the number stated in the article, if only to illustrate the size of the housing bubble in Las Vegas.
The Vegas bubble makes ours look like a small pimple.
Clark
I too tend to agree with the number, and for the same reason. People still do not grasp the utter enormity of the housing bubble and bust that occured in Las Vegas. It was the biggest housing bubble in history. Nothing before resembles it.
People still don’t grasp its dimensions. It will take years and years and years for the LV housing market to recover.
Some properties in LV are now selling for 75% off of 2006-7 prices levels. And there are still oceans of empty houses in LV.