Here are the states with the most vacant houses

Aren't those basically vacation homes?

Yes. Apparently the authors of the original article just wanted clicks on their website so they didn't bother to think about the census' definition of vacancy:

"Vacant Housing Units. A housing unit is vacant if no one is living in it at the time of the interview, unless its occupants are only temporarily absent. In addition, a vacant unit may be one which is entirely occupied by persons who have a usual residence elsewhere. New units not yet occupied are classified as vacant housing units if construction has reached a point where all exterior windows and doors are installed and final usable floors are in place. Vacant units are excluded if they are exposed to the elements, that is, if the roof, walls, windows, or doors no longer protect the interior from the elements, or if there is positive evidence (such as a sign on the house or block) that the unit is to be demolished or is condemned. Also excluded are quarters being used entirely for nonresidential purposes, such as a store or an office, or quarters used for the storage of business supplies or inventory, machinery, or agricultural products. Vacant sleeping rooms in lodging houses, transient accommodations, barracks, and other quarters not defined as housing units are not included in the statistics in this report. (See section on "Housing Unit.")"

Source

The house pictured in the article is not "vacant" under the census definition, but a six million dollar lakefront mansion is.

Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire have many vacation homes which are "vacant" as far as the census is concerned.

Wouldn't it be nice if people writing articles in the media used even a part of their brains?

The article was written by somebody who didn't bother to look up what the census means by "vacant".

Maine does have a lot of vacation homes which is why 24% of its homes are vacant according to the census department definition.

They aren't cheap unless they are very far north because Maine is a beautiful state.

For a nice vacation home in Maine you can plan on paying about $750,000 for a small waterfront house, about twice that if it is on the ocean.

But compared to somewhere like Malibu Beach I guess that is "super cheap".

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