The bloggers at Trulia Trends recently wanted to look at the number of vacant houses across the country, but found that the standard quarterly statistics from the U.S. Bureau of the Census were simply not adequate.
So they came up with a clever solution that provides some insight: They studied monthly data from the U.S. Postal Service on the number of addresses that were and were not receiving mail on a regular basis.
The USPS typically considers a property vacant 90 days after mail delivery to the address ends.
Vacant housing is a big part of what is referred to as the “shadow inventory” of homes, properties that currently are not on the market, but may be at some point in the future.
The shadow inventory, when it does start to come onto the market, will be a huge source of properties for real estate investors, since it likely will be available at below-market rates.
Here is a look at the data from the Trulia blog:
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