Sacramento sees huge rise in vacant houses, apartments

Jim Wasserman and Phillip Reese | Sacramento Bee

Nearly four years into California's housing downturn, close to 24,000 Sacramento-area homes and apartments are vacant, a number that climbed 40 percent in the past year, according to a Bee analysis of federal data.

Roughly a third, or about 7,200, of the six-county region's vacant homes have been empty longer than a year. About 3,500 have been empty longer than two years.

The vacancy count, revealing a vast excess of unused shelter in a region that overbuilt during the housing boom, stems from a U.S. Postal Service survey of houses and apartments where mail has not been picked up for 90 days.

Unoccupied houses put further stress on neighborhoods already hit hard by foreclosures.

Read the complete story at sacbee.com

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