This week, we are continuing our blog series on the housing crisis facing America.

Today, we are focusing on another shocking statistic: vacancy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574542021776119410.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

A huge number of houses are sitting empty. Historically, economic recoveries have been accompanied by strong housing numbers. But our vacancy number shows that we don’t have a healthy housing sector.

As the article notes:

“In the third quarter, about 14.2 million housing units, or a record 10.9% of all housing units, were vacant year-round.

The homeowner vacancy rate, measuring the percentage of owned units either empty or for sale, was 2.6%, near a high. Homeowner vacancy rates have averaged 1.4% in past recoveries from steep housing declines.”

So with so many empty houses, the talk from Washington about an economic recovery appears to be empty rhetoric.