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Nearly 20% of Florida Homes are vacant

senseless

senseless

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 23, 2008
1,890
260
Pennsylvania, USA
Tough road for the sunshine state:

"Florida can't seem to catch a break these days, especially when it comes to its housing market. First, the news (or not-so-news, if you actually live there) broke that Florida had the highest rate of foreclosures of any state in the union during the last quarter of 2010. And now, in a striking example of it pouring when it rains - even in the Sunshine State, another stunningly bad real estate stat: Nearly 20% of the homes, all homes, in Florida are vacant. Vacant as in no one lives there. At all. When almost 1 in 5 homes in a state are vacant, it gives new, economically dismal meaning to the phrase "no one's home.""


http://www.walletpop.com/2011/03/22/nearly-20-of-florida-homes-are-vacant-census-bureau-reveals/
 
My next door neighbor has owned his house for a while, and has been trying to lease it out for the last year or so, but everyone who goes in that house leaves within 3-5 months. Now its just getting foreclosed .
 
Wow, depressing. Imagine the property values of the homes still occupied in a neighborhood where almost all the homes are vacant.
 
Reminds me of Detroit, with one big exception. All the pictures etc I am seeing of Detroit, the homes are in utter dismay. Lots of run down, not livable housing. So far Florida hasn't been hit this way, for the most part. They do have some area's that are starting to show the weathering. Another area that has some pretty run down areas is Las Vegas.
 
This is what you get for using the fantasy equity in your house as an ATM.
 
rhett7660 said:
Reminds me of Detroit, with one big exception. All the pictures etc I am seeing of Detroit, the homes are in utter dismay. Lots of run down, not livable housing. So far Florida hasn't been hit this way, for the most part. They do have some area's that are starting to show the weathering. Another area that has some pretty run down areas is Las Vegas.
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Speaking of Detroit…


Detroit's population dropped 25 percent over the last decade to its lowest level in a century, according to U.S. Census figures released on Tuesday.

The city's population fell to 713,777 last year from 951,270 in 2000 when the last census was taken as the region suffered from a struggling automotive industry, plant closures and job losses.

In the same period, the state of Michigan's population dropped 0.6 percent to 9.88 million.

Detroit's 2010 population compares to 1.85 million people living in the "Motor City" in 1950 and was the lowest total since the 1910 Census showed a population of 285,704.
Click to expand...
 
I wonder it that 20% figure is from the summer or winter in Florida. The population of the county I live in goes up about 30% during Snowbird season.
 
They made their bed, now they have to sleep in it. Much of the housing construction in Florida is speculative anyway, so many of those vacant houses are probably new homes that have never been lived in.
 
rhett7660 said:
Reminds me of Detroit, with one big exception. All the pictures etc I am seeing of Detroit, the homes are in utter dismay. Lots of run down, not livable housing. So far Florida hasn't been hit this way, for the most part. They do have some area's that are starting to show the weathering. Another area that has some pretty run down areas is Las Vegas.
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FWIW, not a whole lot of people live in "Detroit proper" anyway nor would they. Most of the action goes on in the surrounding suburbs and counties.
 
Retirees

Florida is getting hit 2x as hard by the current recession IMO. A lot of Florida's real estate is geared towards retirees, but as the stock market plummeted(and a lot of people, esp. older people, panic sold), new retirees have a lot less money than they once thought. Add to that a bad job market, esp. for older people and what you end up with is a large number of people staying put who would have otherwise went south. That is driving the Florida housing market even further south.
 
macquariumguy said:
I wonder it that 20% figure is from the summer or winter in Florida. The population of the county I live in goes up about 30% during Snowbird season.
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This data is likely based on insurance information. A vacant home is truly vacant more than a certain percentage of the year. Vacation homes are listed accordingly.
Lord Blackadder said:
They made their bed, now they have to sleep in it. Much of the housing construction in Florida is speculative anyway, so many of those vacant houses are probably new homes that have never been lived in.
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There is also the Chinese Drywall issue that hit Florida first and then eventually popped up in California. That was and still continues to be a nightmare. You cannot just rip off the drywall in most cases, you have to replace actual framing.
 
senseless said:
Nearly 20% of the homes, all homes, in Florida are vacant. Vacant as in no one lives there. At all.
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Not all of these 20% are vacant. Between the squatters and the meth labs, I'd bet there's plenty of vacant homes that are occupied...
 
combatcolin said:
In the UK we have, and have had for a very long time a shortage of housing.

You'd be amazed at how expensive UK are.
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Now there's a business opportunity!

A giant barge. Pick up houses in Florida, truck them to the barge. Move barge from Florida to the UK (with the Gulf Stream, you wouldn't need that big a tug) Put houses (now in the UK) on truck and move to new location. Voila! Cheap Houses.

And before too many people scoff at this, check out this link for Nickel Brothers. I live in a part of the world where houses get moved all the time. And because so many communities have water access, they get moved by barge mostly. The expensive part is getting the house to the barge, and then from the barge to the lot. And by 'expensive' I mean - still a lot cheaper compared to the cost of building a house.
 
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