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.

New housing starts are down to a little more than 300,000 units. That’s the lowest level ever recorded by the U.S. Census starting back in 1963. Have a gander at this graph (via Calculated Risk).

Oh, and just for fun, housing supply is also at record levels (also via Calculated Risk).

So, what’s in store for the housing market – with all those jumbo (expensive house) loans in default, the economy worsening, and the mortgage market for anything beyond a conforming loan ($417,000 most places; $625,000 in some higher-priced locations) requiring 30-40 percent down payments and rates of seven and eight percent or more?