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mastax·

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHVRUSQ156N

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RRVRUSQ156N

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Your links don't measure underutilised and vacant property (e.g. AirBnBs and second homes, or land banked properties).

From the links:

The homeowner vacancy rate is the proportion of the homeowner inventory that is vacant for sale.

The rental vacancy rate is the proportion of the rental inventory that is vacant for rent.

So essentially this is a measure of how many properties are vacant and available for rent or purchase.

You are correct, here is a better statistic: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EVACANTUSQ176N

Thanks.

So with a population of 340m, 15m vacant properties, and an average household size of 2.5 we have 15,000,000/(340,000,000/2.5)= 0.11, or a possible vacancy rate of 11%. That seems like a lot.

I'm not sure why you'd want to include AirBnBs and second houses in your measurement vacancy measurement — they aren't available for rent.

Because usually when people talk of an accommodation crisis they are referring to a shortage of homes available to be used as a primary residence. It makes sense to consider holiday homes and such as contributing to this problem. Just ask anyone in Majorca for example.

Sometimes people refer to underutilised properties rather than vacant properties for this reason.

I am very interested to know what happens to the proportion of underutilised properties during an accommodation crisis. The most recent linked chart in this thread is very interesting - what caused the steep increase leading up to the GFC (i.e. during a boom - often associated with a 'shortage')?

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