Tucson has been given the dubious distinction of having the nation’s “sickest” housing markets with a homeowner vacancy rate that is more than double what it was a year ago.
According to a new list, “America’s Ten Sickest Housing Markets,” by the investor website 24/7 Wall Street ranked Tucson as No. 1 with homeowner vacancy rates of 6.8 percent, rental vacancy rates of 15.9 percent and unemployment at 7.8 percent.
24/7 Wall St. evaluated independent sources of housing-market data from the 75 largest metro areas to find the weakest cities in terms of high homeowner vacancy rates, rental vacancy rates, total housing units, unemployment and other factors. These are markets where demand has collapsed and demand has dropped well below the national average.
Arizona’s second-largest city has 440,909 total housing units, according to the website.
Tucson’s homeowner vacancy rate was 3.2 percent a year ago. “The city had a booming residential housing market before the crash. Since then, demand is so low that median home prices have dropped 18 percent in the past year and 33 percent since 2008. In addition, the city has among the highest rate of foreclosures in the country.”
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