The U.S. has nearly 104.8 million residential properties, but as consumers grapple with a longstanding shortage of homes, new data highlights just how many of those millions of properties actively sit empty in communities across the country.
According to recent estimates from real estate analytics firm Attom, as many as 1.33% of all U.S. residential properties — roughly 1.4 million homes — had no occupant at the beginning of 2026.
That share of vacant properties matches levels observed at the end of the third quarter and at the start of 2025.
Vacancy rates are low by historical standards, according to Rob Barber, CEO of Attom, commenting on the trend in the company’s latest quarterly report on vacant properties and zombie foreclosures, published Thursday.
“That is one reason home prices have continued to rise despite ongoing affordability challenges,” Barber stated. “It is also encouraging for both neighborhoods and the broader market that even among properties in foreclosure, vacancy rates remain relatively low.”
At the start of 2026, there were 230,401 residential properties in the process of foreclosure, of which around 3.27% were “zombie” foreclosures where the homeowner has abandoned the property before foreclosure proceedings concluded. The zombie foreclosure rate was flat over the quarter but down from 3.34% a year ago.
Metros across the Midwest had the highest prevalence of zombie foreclosures among cities that had at least 100,000 residential properties and 50 or more properties in the foreclosure process, led by Cleveland at 9.9%; Baltimore at 9.3%; St. Louis at 8.6%; Akron, Ohio at 7.4%; and Indianapolis at 6.5%.
States with the highest total home vacancy rates were Oklahoma and Kansas, each at 2.4%, followed by Alabama, Missouri and West Virginia at 2.2%, 2.1% and 2.1% respectively. The lowest vacancy rates, meanwhile, were in New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut and Idaho, all of which were below a 0.6% threshold.
Homes owned by institutional investors, which Attom defines as holding 10 or more properties, were more likely than those owned by individuals to be vacant. Of the roughly 25.2 million institutional investor-owned homes, 3.5% were vacant at the start of 2026.
States with the highest vacancy rates among investor-owned homes were Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Kansas and Oklahoma, at 7.2%, 6.2%, 6%, 6% and 5.9%, respectively.
