Data Highlights
- The overall rental vacancy rate in the U.S. is 7.3%, compared to 6.7% in the second quarter 2016, and the homeowner vacancy rate is 1.5%, compared to 1.7% in the second quarter 2016.
- The rental vacancy rate inside metropolitan areas is 7.2%, 0.9 percentage points higher than the rate in Q2 2016, and 8.8% outside metropolitan areas, 0.8 percentage points higher than the rate in Q2 2016.
- The rental vacancy rates by regions are as follows:
- Northeast: 5.2% (+0 percentage point YoY)
- Midwest: 8.0% (+0.7 percentage points YoY)
- South: 9.0% (+0.6 percentage points YoY)
- West: 6.0% (+1.2 percentage points YoY)
What Does the Data Tell Us?
The overall rental vacancy rate in the U.S. has been increasing in the past year. In Q2 2017, the rental vacancy rate was 7.3%, 0.6 percentage points higher than Q2 2016. As shown in the figure below, starting in Q3 2009 the rental vacancy rate had been decreasing, reaching its lowest in a decade in Q2 2016. Since then, the rate has been going up for four consecutive quarters.
Median asking rent in the U.S. surged in the second quarter, as shown in the figure below. The median asking rent in Q2 2017 was $910, 5.3% higher than it was in Q1 2017, and 7.4% higher than the median asking rent $847 in Q2 2016.
In addition, it seems that the increase in the overall rental vacancy rate in Q2 2017 was driven by a surge of rental vacancies in the West. The table below shows the rental vacancy rates by region. In the Northeastern region, the rental vacancy rate was consistent in the second quarter, with no change compared to the rate the same time last year. In the West, however, it is a different story. The rental vacancy rate topped 6.0% in the second quarter, with a YoY change of 1.2 percentage points, the highest among all regions. The map below further shows you the YoY changes in rental vacancy rates by state.
It is worth pointing out that the recent increase in the rental vacancy rate seems to be related to the growth in homeownership in the U.S. Since Q2 2016, the homeownership in the U.S. has been growing for four consecutive quarters. The homeownership rate in Q2 2017 reached 63.9%, 0.8 percentage points higher than the rate in Q2 2016. Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, the rental vacancy rate went up by 0.6 percentage points in the past year.
The complete data and report can be found at https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/index.html.
