Goldman estimates 3.5 million Excess Vacant Housing Units

"Some key numbers for the U.S. economy are: 1) the current number of excess housing units, 2) how many new households are being formed each year, and 3) how many housing units are being added to the housing stock each year (at a record low this year).

Unfortunately reliable data for the first two numbers is unavailable except with a significant lag.

I've used the quarterly Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS), but that is not really designed for this purpose.

Goldman Sachs put out an estimate yesterday of 3.5 million units based on the HVS: "Based on data from the Census Bureau, we estimate that about 3.5 million housing units currently sit vacant, above and beyond normal seasonal and frictional vacancies." They calculated a range of 2.5 to 4.5 million units based on different assumptions..."

at  http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/04/goldman-estimates-35-million-excess.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculated+Risk%29