How Better Data Helps Communities Address Vacancy

Neighborhoods experiencing systemic vacancy feel the negative impacts of vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties every day. This problem can feel insurmountable—especially without accurate data.

Why is local data important for understanding vacant properties?

Without accurate, consolidated data, it’s hard to know the scale and scope of problem properties, let alone how to address them. Parcel data, market conditions, health statistics, and even neighbors’ perceptions of public safety are all examples of local data that clarifies a community’s story. Robust data tracking and analysis helps local decisionmakers and residents understand the specifics of local property vacancy, the factors keeping those properties in the cycle of decline—and which interventions will have a real impact.

What data can help track property vacancy?

Key indicators can provide insight into the root causes and social, economic, and fiscal impacts of VAD properties. Data can be pulled from a variety of sources, starting with local government departments.

Common data sources

Assessor data: This foundational dataset provides basic attributes of the lot and structure, zoning and property class, ownership, assessment, and recent sales. Most importantly, it usually includes a “universal parcel identifier” (like a TaxID) that can be used to link and merge separate datasets managed by different departments.

Assessor data also provides information on median residential sales price in a neighborhood or community, buyer name or address (to determine owner-occupancy as well as the nature of ownership, such as an out-of-state LLC), and frequency of sales—all of which shed light on neighborhood market conditions.

Property tax data: No data point is more predictive of a potential problem property than property tax delinquency. Chronic delinquency suggests an abandoned property that could be causing significant harm to its neighbors. Tracking the result of tax sales and auctions is also essential. This helps identify who is buying property, what they’re willing to pay compared to public debt owed, and which properties are so underwater they don’t attract a single private bid.

Code enforcement records and inspections: Number, type of, and frequency of code enforcement citations—in particular recurring, unremedied, and unpaid citations—and inspection information are indicators of housing or property condition, occupancy, and neighborhood need. Tracking code liens, if applicable, helps communities tally the cost of vacancy.

Vacant property registry: Some local governments have a vacant property registration ordinance (VPRO). These ordinances require owners of vacant properties to register with their municipality or county. If your community has a VPRO, these registries can provide data on vacant properties and nature of ownership (in-state, out-of-state, etc.).

Police, fire, and 311 calls: The number, location, and frequency of calls to first responders can highlight neighborhoods where high concentrations of VAD properties pose safety or quality of life concerns. Many fire departments track vacancy information to flag properties that could pose serious risks to responders or generate frequent emergency calls. This data may be informally collected (from staff knowledge or shared records) to formal databases, such as those maintained by the St. Louis Fire Department.

Utility service records: Public utility records (e.g., water, energy, internet, and/or waste services) can be used to identify properties with service shut off or significant usage drops for six months or more. These properties are often vacant.

Windshield or parcel condition surveys: A windshield survey visually evaluates exterior property conditions (often conducted while driving, hence what you can see “through the windshield”) to assess overall condition, occupancy status, and presence of trash or debris.

This administrative and community-based data can help find static numbers, like the number of tax-delinquent properties in a community. Looking at data spatially also provides an in-depth view of VAD block by block. While smaller local governments may not have geographic information services (GIS) mapping expertise, they may be able to leverage capacity from their county government or by partnering with local universities.

Importantly, reviewing this data over time can reveal trends that suggest if a neighborhood is sliding into decline, stabilizing, or rebounding—all of which point to different strategies and interventions.

How can you make this data actionable?

Data helps local governments make critical decisions, like which properties to prioritize for rehab, or assess how many properties might qualify for a new initiative. However, data upkeep and monitoring takes time, skill, financial investment, and collaboration across departments and stakeholders. It can be done comprehensively with sophisticated IT systems and software, or incrementally and cheaply using spreadsheets and Google Maps. No matter how limited a community’s resources, there is always a place to start. Every step is a meaningful improvement.

Making the data actionable requires local stakeholders to make the following important commitments.

• Maintaining quality data: Quality data is accurate, complete, and consistent. Maintaining quality data includes standardizing data collection across departments, cleaning administrative datasets, and training volunteers to maintain data collection standards.
• Routine data maintenance and management: Information becomes outdated—and less useful—without regular upkeep. Relying on outdated data can lead to decision-making that doesn’t reflect current realities, so ensure information is regularly cleaned, monitored, and updated.
• Cross-sector and departmental collaboration: Many stakeholders have a piece of the story when it comes to understanding VAD in a community. Compiling data from multiple stakeholders helps provide a more complete picture, reduces long-term workload, and builds in accountability for data use and collection. Collaborating on data compilation can also serve as an entry point to longer-term coalitions or partnerships to address vacant properties.

Examples of local governments and communities using data to prioritize, track, and monitor vacant properties

Using Data to Inform and Prioritize Initiatives

Clean Sweeps Initiative (City of Buffalo, New York): Operation Clean Sweep brings together public partners (city, state, and federal), local health and human service providers, and community groups to address vacancy. Over a six-month period, teams work in a specific neighborhood in each of the nine council districts throughout the city. These teams board up structures, clear trash and debris, engage in community policing, and knock on doors to provide government, health, and employment information.

Buffalo uses the map-based platform BuildingBlocks to track local data and identify priority neighborhoods for Clean Sweeps. Created through Tolemi BuildingBlocks, the platform was developed in 2017 as part of a state-wide grant. It pulls from 50 datasets including information like utility payments and shut-offs, building permits, property sales, and more. In partnership with Tolemi, Buffalo also developed a Clean Sweep score, informed by 311 calls, police incidents, code violations, tax delinquency, and other factors. The Clean Sweep score helps the City decide which neighborhoods to prioritize for intervention and revitalization work.

Flint Property Portal (Genesee County Land Bank (GCLBA) and City of Flint, Michigan): To increase public access to information and ensure governmental transparency and accountability, the City and GCLBA maintain the Flint Property Portal. Powered by Regrid, the portal tracks ownership, value, and condition data for the City’s 56,000 properties.

Much of the portal’s property condition data is collected by community-based organizations and volunteers. Through the Your Neighborhood Inventory program—a partnership with the Community Foundation of Greater Flint and the City—participating groups are awarded $500, along with training and support, to conduct data collection. Since 2012, community groups have conducted five citywide inventories, including housing and commercial property condition assessments, a sidewalk audit, and a lighting audit. The portal is used daily to make decisions about community revitalization strategy, maintenance, and planning. We’ve written before about how it was used to conduct a survey of illegal dumping in the city.

Using Data to Track and Monitor Impact

Reinvest Baltimore (Baltimore, Maryland): Reinvest Baltimore is a multi-year state and city partnership that brings together public agencies with private, philanthropic, and nonprofit partners to reduce vacancy and promote neighborhood renewal in Baltimore City. The initiative is overseen by the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Council (BVRC), which is chaired by members of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development, and includes over a dozen cross-sector leaders and stakeholders.

With a goal to revitalize more than 5,000 vacant buildings throughout the city of Baltimore between 2025 and 2029, BVRC tracks progress through their public-facing PowerBI dashboard. The dashboard promotes transparency and helps BVRC monitor progress towards their goal. It features real-time tracking of property acquisition, disposition, demolitions, rehabs, and citations of vacant buildings. In its 2025 Annual Report, BVRC outlined plans to continue to expand the dashboard in FY2026 to include data on public investment.

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None of the systems above were built overnight. Rather, they are the result of years of testing, evaluation, and incremental improvement of systems and processes. By starting small and working collaboratively, local governments can use data to better address the impact of vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in their communities.

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Not sure how to get started with data? Community Progress can help! We can be a thought partner, connect you with others in the field, or work alongside you through a technical assistance engagement. Contact us to learn more.