Zillow says there were more than 300k vacant lots of five acres or less listed for sale on their site in June, representing 17.4% of all listings. They suggest that building one home on each could reduce the national housing deficit by 6.3%, to about 4.44 million homes. With the typical lot measuring 0.57 acres, the impact could be even greater. However, they say the challenge is making it feasible to build. Policies that loosen zoning rules, streamline permitting or expand access to financing would help reduce the cost and uncertainty that hold construction back.
The five states with the most empty lots listed are Florida (42,598), Texas (40,907), California (18,504), North Carolina (14,230) and Georgia (10,336). Not surprising, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska, have empty lots making up 46%, 38.6% and 34.6% of all for-sale listings.
Click here to read the full report at Zillow.
