The state of Texas is home to more than 7.5 million residential properties. As of the close of 2019’s fourth quarter, nearly 97,000 of those properties — or 1.29% — have been marked abandoned or vacant. That rate holds steady from Q3.
When looking at zombie properties — or abandoned properties in some stage of foreclosure — the vacancy rate is even higher in Texas. Just over 2% of all pre-foreclosure properties were marked abandoned in Q4. That’s down from the previous quarter’s rate, when 2.22% of all homes in some stage of foreclosure were vacant.
Investor-owned properties also saw a higher vacancy rate than the state’s average. Of the Lone Star State’s nearly 1.9 million investor-owned homes, nearly 70,000 were marked vacant in the fourth quarter of 2019 — a rate of 3.62%.
Nationally,1.55% of all residential properties have been marked abandoned. Of the country’s investor-owned properties, more than 1.1 million are vacant (3.85%), and 8,500 are pre-foreclosure properties (2.96%). At the state level, Texas has a higher vacancy rate than California, North Carolina, and New York. It comes in lower than states like Florida (2.16%), Ohio (2.12%), and Michigan (2.11%).
Here’s the current state of vacant, abandoned, and zombie homes in the Lone Star State, as of Q4 2019.
Property Status | Vacancy Rate | Total Number of Properties |
---|---|---|
Vacant Properties | 1.29% | 96,904 |
Vacant, pre-foreclosure zombie properties | 2.06% | 154 |
Vacant, investor-owned properties | 3.62% | 69,836 |