A closer look at vacancy patterns reveals a stubborn housing problem
The national home vacancy rate has remained steady for more than three years, though a slight increase was noted in the number of abandoned properties, according to a new report released Thursday by ATTOM, a real estate data and analytics provider.
The report found that the national home vacancy rate in the United States remained unchanged at 1.3% in the third quarter of 2025, while the share of so-called “zombie” foreclosures rose slightly.
The study found that about 1.39 million residential properties across the country were vacant, marking the 14th consecutive quarter that the vacancy rate held steady. ATTOM attributed the consistency to strong housing demand.
Of the 222,318 properties in the foreclosure process, 7,519 had been abandoned by their owners, a 3.38% share, according to the report. This figure, known as a “zombie” property, is up slightly from 3.30% in the second quarter of 2025 and 3.14% in the same period last year.
“Vacant and zombie homes can hurt the value of surrounding properties and start a negative spiral in a local housing market,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “While we’ve seen the rate of zombie homes tick up a tiny bit this quarter, the overall rate of vacant homes and homes in the foreclosure process has remained remarkably steady.”
He added that “there remain some markets with worryingly high rates of vacancies, [but] as a whole it appears that the nation’s buyers are quickly filling homes that become available.”
Zombie foreclosure numbers rose in 23 states between the second and third quarters, though most increases were minor. Colorado and Washington saw the sharpest year-over-year growth, more than doubling their zombie property counts. By contrast, Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois, and New York posted some of the largest declines.
Vacancy rates varied widely by state. Oklahoma led with 2.4%, followed by Kansas, Alabama, Missouri, and West Virginia. Northeastern states, including New Hampshire, Vermont, and New Jersey, recorded the lowest levels, all under 0.6%.
Large metropolitan areas generally fared better than the national average. More than half of the 135 metro regions studied posted zombie foreclosure rates below 3.38%. Still, pockets of distress remained, with Wichita, Kansas (12.7%) and Peoria, Illinois (12.3%) topping the list of metros with the highest proportions of zombie homes.
Investor-owned properties were more likely to sit vacant, with 3.6% of the nation’s nearly 25 million such homes unoccupied. Indiana led with a 7.2% vacancy rate, while New Hampshire had the lowest at 0.9%.
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