Experts say the reasons vary but the common link is the poor economy, which has caused homes to stay on the market longer, forced foreclosures on homeowners and taken its toll on the secondary housing market. Ritzy Middleburg, where 30 percent of homes sit empty, has the highest vacancy rate in the region, according to data compiled from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Some of the roughly 100 vacancies are attributed to seasonal homes.
But excluding those homes and ones that are sold or rented but sit empty, the town’s vacancy rate is still more than 16 percent, the second-highest in the region.
The economy’s impact on household budgets may have caused some to give up their vacation homes, said Jill Landsman, a spokeswoman for the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
| Housing vacancy rates | ||||||
| Housing | Base | Qualified | ||||
| City/town | units | vacancy rate | vacancy rate* | |||
| Middleburg | 336 | 30.4% | 16.3% | |||
| Quantico | 400 | 19% | 17.1% | |||
| Huntington | 5,136 | 17.3% | 14.2% | |||
| D.C. east of Anacostia | 63,943 | 14.3% | 13.0% | |||
| *excludes empty homes that are sold, rented or seasonal | ||||||
| Source: American Community Survey 2005-2009 | ||||||
“Middleburg is known to have a very affluent clientele and population and there are second homes for a lot of people there,” she said. “Obviously there can be some people who no longer want a second home.”
Excluding homes that are unoccupied but are sold, rented or seasonal, Quantico has the highest vacancy rate at 17 percent. That is likely due to the transient nature of the nearby military population, Landsman said. According to the data, most of the vacant homes are rentals.
However, Huntington’s vacancy rate of 14 percent — third-highest in the region — could be a product
of the higher number of foreclosures.
Roughly 580 properties in Fairfax County’s Huntington are in foreclosure and the average home sits on the market more than 100 days, Landsman said.
The portion of Southeast D.C. across the Anacostia River has the fourth-highest rate in the region, with 13 percent of the area’s 64,000 housing units empty. That area also has a higher number of foreclosures than other parts of the city, according to online foreclosure firm RealtyTrac.
Economists have said the area has a higher percentage of
employees in the service industry whose jobs were hit by the recession.
But real estate agents say the Washington area has a better vacancy rate than other regions.
“Property here is just too valuable to leave vacant,” said Donna Evers, a real estate agent based in D.C.
The national housing vacancy rate is nearly 12 percent, according to the survey data, an increase of nearly three percentage points from 2000.
Beyond the top four, cities and towns in the region have a housing vacancy rate lower than the national average.
