There are a number of surprises here... cities not often discussed in other articles. For me, though, the biggest surprises are the cities that are missing. Nothing from Florida? Nothing from California? Seattle? And, most surprising of all, where is Las Vegas???
Medic! America's sickest housing markets
Combination of crushed prices, lots of vacancies and down economy have these cities reeling
By Charles B. Stockdale, Douglas A. McIntyre and Michael B. Sauter
24/7wallst.com
For three years, the real estate market has been going in one direction — primarily down. Some areas, however, have begun to recover. Recent S&P/Case-Shiller data show that among the top 20 housing markets in the U.S., 18 had very modest improvements in sales prices during May. Others, like Washington and Boston, have began to at least stabilize from a year ago.
Few markets, however, can match Washington and Boston. Robert Shiller has been stating that home prices could fall another 10 percent in the next year. Inventories in some major metropolitan areas would take years of sales to get back to 2005 levels. Then, the normal inventory of homes for sale was replaced on average every six months and it was unusual for a house to be on the market for a year. Foreclosure rates remain high and only the robo-signing scandal has slowed the process.
Once this is resolved, economists fear the market will be flooded with even more vacant, unsold homes. 24/7 Wall St. has taken a new look at the housing market to find the very weakest cities by identifying those with the highest homeowner vacancy rates and rental vacancy rates. These are markets where demand has clearly collapsed.
These are cities where the requirement for living space has dropped well below the national average. Further, vacancy rates of many cities were stable during the recession, but accelerated sharply higher in the last year. Similarly, housing prices in several of these markets have decreased at a faster rate in the last three quarters than during the recession.
These cities, like Detroit, St. Louis, Dayton, and Atlanta, also tend to be larger and older among the top 75 metropolitan areas. Their economies were damaged long before the recession.
Then 10 worst are:
10. Oklahoma City, Ok.
Homeowner vacancy rates: 5.2 percent (6th)
Rental vacancy rates: 9.6 percent (34th)
Total housing units: 539,077
Unemployment: 4.9 percent
9. St. Louis, Mo.
Homeowner vacancy rates: 3.3 percent (19th)
Rental vacancy rates: 11.4 percent (18th)
Total housing units: 1,236,222
Unemployment: 8.6 percent
8. Kansas City, Mo. (tie)
Homeowner vacancy rates: 3.7 percent (13th)
Rental vacancy rates: 11 percent (22nd)
Total housing units: 883,099
Unemployment: 8.4 percent
8. Detroit, Mich. (tie)
Homeowner vacancy rates: 2.4 percent (32nd)
Rental vacancy rates: 17.2 percent (3rd)
Total housing units: 1,886,537
Unemployment: 11.6 percent
6. Dayton, Ohio
Homeowner vacancy rates: 4.7 percent (7th)
Rental vacancy rates: 10.7 percent (23rd)
Total housing units: 385,160
Unemployment: 9.3 percent
5. Baton Rouge, La.
Homeowner vacancy rates: 3.9 percent (11th)
Rental vacancy rates: 13 percent (12th)
Total housing units: 329,729
Unemployment: 8.4 percent
4. Atlanta, Ga.
Homeowner vacancy rates: 5.4 percent (4th)
Rental vacancy rates: 11.8 percent (17th)
Total housing units: 2,165,495
Unemployment: 9.7 percent
3. Memphis, Tenn.
Homeowner vacancy rates: 4 percent (9th)
Rental vacancy rates: 13.5 percent (11th)
Total housing units: 550,896
Unemployment: 10.1 percent
2. Indianapolis, Ind.
Homeowner vacancy rates: 5.2 percent (5th)
Rental vacancy rates: 13.5 percent (10th)
Total housing units: 757,441
Unemployment: 7.8 percent
1. Tucson, Ariz.
Homeowner vacancy rates: 6.8 percent (1st)
Rental vacancy rates: 15.9 percent (6th)
Total housing units: 440,909
Unemployment: 7.8 percent
Full story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44005383/ns/business-real_estate/
| 
