The US Census Bureau reported yesterday (March 21st, 2011) that 18% of Florida homes are vacant.

Today, the Florida Association of Realtors rushed to explain that he media did a bad job of reporting this statistic. Evidently, the media didn't explain that the US Census Bureau defines "vacant" as "no one is living in the home at the time of the [census bureau] interview" or "the home is entirely occupied by persons who have a usual residence elsewhere [snowbirds]"  and that "vacant" also means new construction homes that are mostly - but not completely - finished.

FAR pre-supposes that if the media had better defined the term "vacant", and had accounted for the fact that some of our vacant homes are owned by snow-birds, and still other vacant homes do not yet have certificate's of occupancy, then the number would naturally be much lower and so much less alarming to analysts who are trying to gauge the recovery of the Florida housing market.

FAR complained that media reports of this huge vacancy rate are being spun to suggest that the Florida real estate market is in much worse shape than Realtors suggest, and that it will take a long time for all these vacant homes to be absorbed by the market.

But some might suggest that the problem is likely much worse than the 18% vacancy rate that is being reported by the media - and much worse than what FAR will ever care to admit. When one considers the number of single family homes that are being rented, PLUS the number of homes that are being lived in by owners who are on the verge of bankruptcy, PLUS the number of vacant apartment units that exist to accommodate these people once the homeowners inevitably get foreclosed on, then just imagine how much higher this number will go.

18% sounds terrible. If this stat holds true for my community of 200 houses, 36 homes are vacant. But when I start to add in the number of rented homes and the number of pre-foreclosures, well... an 18% vacancy rate doesn't begin to cut it!