Trends in the US Apartment Vacancy Rate, Q2 2009This was by 0.5 percentage points higher than the rate that prevailed in the previous quarter and by 0.6 percentage points higher than the rate that prevailed in the second quarter of 2008. The lowest national vacancy rate that was reported by the Housing Vacancy Survey since it began in 1996 was 7.5% and it was the rate that prevailed in the first quarter of 2007. br> Apartment vacancy rates in principal cities as of the second quarter of 2009 averaged 11.2%, 1.2 percentage points higher than the vacancy rate in the suburbs, which averaged 10%. The average vacancy rate in both principal cities and the suburbs was higher compared to its second quarter 2008 level by 0.8 and 0.7 percentage points, respectively. There was also significant variation in apartment vacancy rates across regions. In particular, the Northeast registered the lowest vacancy rate of 7.4% while the South registered the highest vacancy rate of 13.8%. The West registered the second lowest vacancy rate of 8.9%, while the Midwest registered the second highest rate of 10.4%. Contrary to what happened in the apartment market, the homeowner vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2009, which averaged 2.5%, was the lowest reported in the last two and a half years and particularly since the fourth quarter of 2006, when it averaged 2.7%. The average homeowner vacancy rate in the second quarter was 0.2 percentage points down compared to the rate of 2.7% that prevailed in the previous quarter and 0.3 percentage points down compared to the rate that prevailed in the second quarter of 2008. As was the case for apartments, the homeowner vacancy rate was higher in the principal cities than in the suburbs (3.2% versus 2.2%). However, in both locations, vacancy rates decreased compared to their level a year ago by 0.3 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively. Variations in homeowner vacancy rates across regions were considerably smaller compared to variations in apartment vacancy rates, as they ranged from 2% in the Northeast to 2.7% in the South. Homeowner vacancy rates averaged 2.4% in both the Midwest and the West. The graphs below show the trends in the US apartment and homeowner vacancy rates over the last two and a half years.
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