What does this indicator mean?
The percentage of residential property that is unoccupied. A “good” vacancy rate helps ensure neighborhoods are desirable and affordable and varies depending on the rental and housing market of a given town or city. Typically, this rate is between 5–8%.
How is this indicator useful for creating and measuring activity-friendly places?
- To determine a balanced number of units available and unavailable in a community.
- To identify causes of unusually low average vacancy rates (e.g., housing shortages; high percentage of short-term vacation rentals) or high average vacancy rates (e.g., unappealing to renters or oversupply of units) and develop programs to address the causes.
What would help the most people benefit from this indicator?
- Empower community residents to identify solutions and make decisions on how to revitalize their communities.
- Encourage developers to build affordable housing based on community needs and context.
- Establish “Just-Cause” eviction ordinances to protect current tenants.
- Convene a coalition across different sectors (e.g., public, private, nonprofit, policy) and the community at-large to ensure that redevelopment serves the community’s interest.
- Provide a range of housing sizes, types, and costs (see “housing affordability”).
- Consider a higher property tax rate on vacant houses and/or short term vacation rentals.