housing
Vacant homes
Why this matters
A vacant home is one with no one living in it. This measure shows the share of all housing units that are empty. It is a context number, not automatically good or bad, because vacancy has many causes.
Some empty units are for sale or for rent and simply between residents, a normal sign of a moving market. Others are seasonal or vacation homes, the single largest type of vacant housing nationwide. But a high vacancy rate can also flag disinvestment, where homes sit empty because of job losses, foreclosures, or neglect.
Because the reasons differ so much, it helps to read vacancy alongside local knowledge.
About the Charlotte region
This explorer covers the 14-county, two-state Charlotte region (11 North Carolina and 3 South Carolina counties). Many of these indicators connect to a defining regional story: a landmark Harvard study ranked Charlotte last, 50th of the 50 largest U.S. metros for economic mobility (a child raised in the poorest fifth had about a 4.4% chance of reaching the top fifth), a finding that launched the region's Leading on Opportunity agenda. Updated 2024 data show Charlotte has since climbed to 38th.
Opportunity here is also unevenly mapped. An affluent “wedge” fanning southeast from uptown holds a large majority of the city's wealth on under a quarter of its land, while a ”crescent” to the north, west, and east carries higher poverty, a legacy of redlining, exclusionary zoning, and highway routing that recurs across the race, income, health, tree-canopy, and school maps in this tool. No single indicator is good or bad on its own; together they describe how the region sorted opportunity.
Companion resources: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer · UNC Charlotte Urban Institute · Opportunity Atlas · Methods & sources
Learn more
- U.S. Census Bureau — Most vacant housing is seasonal census.gov
Shows seasonal/recreational use is the largest category of vacant homes.
- U.S. Census Bureau — Housing Vacancies and Homeownership census.gov
Official source for vacancy rates and characteristics.
About the data
Calculated from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2014–2024), at the Census-tract level, with margins of error. ACS 5-year vintages overlap year to year, so the series is a rolling estimate; compare only non-overlapping periods.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.