Real Estate News: Flint, MI Continues to Have High Rates of Vacant Homes

The United States is slowly experiencing a decrease in the percentage of vacant homes across the country, but findings reveal that one state in particular remains filled with empty spots. What does this mean for the real estate market?

Flint, MI was found to have the most number of vacant homes as of Jan. 31, Realtor.com reported. According to the publication, 7.5 percent of the vacancies in the real estate market has come from this area.

This can be attributed to the fact that lead was declared to be found in the city's water supply, which led to the declaration of a state of emergency.

Detroit came in at 5.3 percent vacancy rate, which is then followed by Youngstown, OH, Beaumont, TX and Atlantic City, NJ at 4.4, 3.8 and 3.7 percent, respectively.

While these figures do not seem like good news, vice president of real estate data firm RealtyTrac Daren Blomquist revealed that their findings revealed that there are lesser vacant homes in January as compared to the data gathered in Sept. 2015.

"[It's] a definite sign that we're in a housing recovery," he said.

As previously reported here on Realty Today, recent findings also revealed that Americans are no longer interested in buying their own homes, and opted to rent instead.

The index dropped 1.7 points from 83.2 in December to 81.5 in January. The said drop was partly due to the fact that the average wage per hour still does not seem enough in today's growing economy.

"Jobs are increasing, but wages really haven't caught up," said Jonathan Bowles from the Center for an Urban Future in NYC.

Given these two findings, would homeowners who are interested in getting their own homes benefit from getting ghost houses instead?

The answer is yes. Ghost properties, which include foreclosures, are said to be one of the best options that homebuyers can choose from because there are great deals on these properties.