According to the U.S. census, that is the number of vacant housing units in the United States of America. In total there are approximately 131 million housing units in the country, which works out to 2.4 people per dwelling. At face value, those numbers suggest that we have an ample, yea, a luxurious stock of housing, compared to any other country on the planet. The housing bubble that peaked in 2006 contributed to a condition of oversupply and severe overpricing which will take many years to work its way through the economy.
But, I'm not entirely convinced that we have a legitimate oversupply of housing, because a great number of those units are of questionable quality, tending towards obsolescence, and most importantly an unoccupied house is in a more fragile maintenance category than an occupied one.
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