America's housing shortage could shrink by more than 6% if homes were built on the more than 300,000 vacant residential lots currently listed for sale across the U.S., according to research released Tuesday by Zillow Group Inc.
(NASDAQ:Z) The report found 300,242 vacant lots measuring 5 acres or less listed for sale in June, representing 17.4% of all homes and land listed on Zillow.
Building one home on each lot would reduce the nation's estimated housing deficit from 4.7 million homes to roughly 4.44 million, a 6.3% decline.
Zillow said the estimate is conservative because the typical lot spans 0.57 acres, making it large enough in many cases to support more than one home.
Untapped Supply "The more than 300,000 lots currently listed for sale represent the lowest-hanging fruit in addressing a housing shortage that's two decades in the making," Kara Ng, senior economist at Zillow, said.
