August 4th, 2009 11:11 AM by Ron Mastrodonato
Vacancy Rates on the Rise
As the job market ebbs and flows, some of the country’s largest cities are losing residents and gaining empty homes.To create a list of cities where vacancies are rising, Forbesmagazine examined data from the 75 largest metropolitan areas. It ranked the locales based on changes in first quarter vacancy data from the Census Bureau, averaging homeownership and rental data."There really are two reasons why you'd have vacancies: supply-related and demand-related," says Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. "A number of these places have experienced substantial overbuilding, which would lead you to have supply issues. Others, with troubled local economies, are more demand-related."
read more to find out which cities have the highest rates...