I just ran across a story from Forbes and Yahoo about America’s Most Vacant Cities. The list is this…
- Las Vegas, NV
- Detroit, MI
- Atlanta, GA
- Greensboro/High Point, NC
- Dayton, OH
- Phoenix, AZ
- Orlando, FL
- Kansas City, KS and MO
- Jacksonville, FL (tie)
- Indianapolis, IN (tie)
- Miami area, FL
- Chicago, IL
- Tampa area, FL
- Bakersfield, CA
- Cincinnati area, OH (tie)
- Charlotte, NC
This is based on data from the 75 largest cities, collected in Q4 2008 and released on Feb. 3rd by the Census Bureau. It is supposed to be based on an average of the rental and homeowner vacancy rates.
There is a little oddity that I noticed… Atlanta {and Sandy Springs/Marietta… I don’t know why they don’t mention anything on this side of town, although I know we are all in the Atlanta Metro Statistical Area (MSA)} actually ranked 8th in rental vacancies and tied for 6th in homeowner vacancy rates… so, maybe it isn’t as bad as it sounds.
The actual vacancy rates were 16.1% for rentals and 4.3% for homeowners.
There is one other little oddity I would like to mention here. A little over a month ago, Forbes had a story about where sales were brisk. Atlanta ranked 10th. They specifically identified cities were “distressed sales” were a large part of the market. Phoenix, Detoit and LasVegas also appeared on that list. But, instead of being Florida heavy, it was California heavy.
What I am taking away from this is the knowledge that the California market has already started to turn. I think that Phoenix and LasVegas are on the cusp, along with Atlanta. Floridsa may be the next market to start the turn. Detroit is a special situation, because the fundamentals of that market are weak and the economy isn’t poised to turn around for a while.
What do you think?
from LilburnDwellings.com