Las Vegas takes top spot, followed by Detroit. Atlanta, Greensboro, and Dayton round out the top five. Phoenix comes in sixth. No surprises there. But, I was surprised frankly to see Chicago make the list. Here’s the full list, from Forbes.com, based on fourth-quarter rental and homeowner vacancy rates for the 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. Curiously, there is considerable overlap with this Forbes list of the places where home sales are rising fastest.
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I bet Chicago has a lot of auto suppliers and in part has been hit by the collapse of the auto industry.
That is certainly why Indianapolis made this list as well. Ohio and Detroit are in long-term decline.
Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Orlando, Bakersfield, Miami, Jacksonville are all overbuilt or victims of the housing bust, as the article mentions.
Surprised that Los Angeles isn’t on the list. Maybe L.A. is more robust than I gave it credit for.
I would have picked Sacremento and Fresno for obvious ones as well.
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Thank you for posting this report. There is a difference between “empty” and “vacant”. A European city-planner visiting Chicago ten years ago was amazed at the large number of empty building lots. The south side of Chicago emptied out of people as the huge public housing projects were demolished. It would be instructive if the “empty” numbers were recalculated to include empty lots. They really have the same status as the “overbuilding” elsewhere.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:22 am
Good call, Mike.
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:47 am
Yeah, for European standards the American cities, with the exception of a few, are somewhat empty. We had a sprawl after the WWII, but later and not as much as in the U.S.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Being in a south side Chicago ‘burb, this it TOTALLY a subprime mortgage/ minority borrower issue. There are majority African-American south side ‘burbs that have been totally decimated by the subprime crisis. Certain majority African-American Chicago neighborhoods have been decimated as well.
There’s a ‘burb called Ford Heights, which is supermajority African-American, which is very poor, which had its first new subdivision in decades go up over the last couple of years. It is totally vacant. Every house has been forclosed on.
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Ouch! My city, Richmond, Virginia made the list of rental vacancy rates. Which is interesting because our real estate market is solid, at least the urban core is. Our real estate values are relatively stable, they never over-heated and haven’t collapsed.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:14 am
How do you get to the whole 75 list?
I was talking to a young friend this evening and they’re looking to rent in Portland’s Western suburbs (towards Hillsboro) nearer new jobs. The best place they found is new condos that aren’t selling and the developer is renting them pretty cheap. She said they’re unlived in, $200,000 two bedroom apartments renting for less than $1000, cheap around here — or used to be.
December 6th, 2011 at 5:33 am
“this is gonna be a hell of a bloody day!”