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USA Today ran this story this week on the staggering number of vacant homes for sale. This is a bad sign of the housing market because vacant homes are far harder to sell, sell for rock-bottom prices which erodes home values and take much longer to sell. Showhomes focuses on this niche and has had a great track record last year and so far this year getting these homes staged, occupied and sold.
This should be good news and a great business opportunity for other staging companies. Showhomes opened a record number of franchises last year, largely to help service high demand. In recent stats, vacant homes staged by Showhomes are selling in 4-5 months and for 93% of original list price. Comperable vacant homes are taking well over a year to sell and are selling for 70-80% of original list price. If you have a vacant listing, let us help you get it sold.
The entire article is here: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-02-12-vacancy12_N.h
No one home: 1 in 9 housing units vacant
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By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY
A record 1 in 9 U.S. homes are vacant, a glut created by the housing boom and subsequent collapse.
"The numbers are further documentation of the gravity of the housing problem," says Nicolas Retsinas, head of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "This inventory is delaying any kind of housing recovery."
The surge in empty houses, condominiums and apartments is creating a wave of problems for communities desperate to shore up property values and tax revenues that pay for services. Vacant homes create upkeep and safety problems that ripple through neighborhoods.
"It has a contagion effect," Retsinas says. "A house that is vacant is often a house that is less well kept up."
A construction frenzy began pushing the vacancy rate up in 2005 but empty homes sold quickly at that time.
"This is a different problem," says Dowell Myers, housing demographer at the University of Southern California. "It's high now because of lack of demand. Now, vacancies we see are from units that have been empty for a period of time."
Census numbers show:
• More than 14 million housing units are vacant. That number does not include an estimated 4.8 million seasonal or vacation homes, most of which are occupied part of the year. The combined vacancy rate of almost 15% is higher than during previous recessions: 11% in 1991 and 9.4% in 1984.
• About 3% of owned homes are vacant. In normal times, "maybe 1% should be vacant," Myers says.
• More than 9% of homes built since 2000 are vacant compared with about 2% for older homes.
• Homes priced at $500,000 or more are just as likely to be empty as homes that cost less than $100,000.
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