In Florida’s case, maybe a lot of the vacant homes are winter “snowbird” houses that they leave for the summer.
True.
It's hard to find very many vacant homes in the panhandle--homes under $1M sale (often site unseen) within days and available rental property is scarce--especially homes for rent.
Same out here where I am-rural area-lots of houses and cabins on/near the river and lake are owned/leased by Summer people on weekends or by snowbirds from as far North as Canada who live in them from Nov to April-and pretty much support the nicest resort golf course in the county with greens fees, as well as meal purchases at the tourist trap shops, restaurants and bars, regular grocery shopping, liquor stores, etc-those are not “empty homes”-their part-time residents are a good seasonal source of income to our local businesses...
The author of the article apparently does not understand how Winter tourism works in the warmer states...
Exactly. Snowbirds’ second homes.
It would be like them doing their study and only observing Christians’ homes on Sunday mornings. The resulting data would say a huge percentage of homes are vacant.