Identifying Vacant and Abandoned Properties

IN THIS SECTION

• National Data on Vacant Properties
• Local Data on Vacant Properties
• Conducting a Vacant Property Condition Survey

Local officials, planners, nonprofit organizations, and residents have access to vast amounts of data about their communities. This data enables people to understand what is going on in their community, including crime patterns, tax foreclosures, vacant properties, and housing market trends. Often, however, people don’t know which datasets can give them what information, how reliable they are, and where to find them.

When developing a vacant property revitalization strategy, the first step is knowing where your vacant properties are located. Only then can you target revitalization strategies and interventions block by block based on what the data reveals.

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To learn more about neighborhood data collection and analysis, download Neighborhoods by Numbers.

National Data on Vacant Properties

There is no single national dataset that purely tracks vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in the United States. However, you can learn a lot from United States Postal Service (USPS) and Census Bureau data.

United States Postal Service Data

The USPS collects address-level data for mail delivery purposes, tracking which addresses have been vacant for more than 90 days and which are classified as “no-stat”—meaning “addresses for businesses or homes under construction and not yet occupied, or addresses in urban areas identified by a carrier as not likely to be active for some time.” The data is broken out by residential and business addresses and includes how long each has been vacant (90–180 days, 180–360 days, or over one year).

Through an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), this data is available quarterly at no cost to approved users affiliated with government agencies or nonprofits. To apply, visit http://www.huduser.org/portal/usps/index.html.

Though the USPS data is valuable—and one of the few datasets updated as frequently as quarterly—it requires careful interpretation. The “no-stat” category may seem like a reliable indicator of abandoned properties, but users have found two common inconsistencies: differences between labeling practices from one post office to the next, and changes in data gathering procedures (particularly in 2010) that complicate long-term trend analysis.

Make sure you cross-check USPS data against field observation before drawing conclusions. USPS also licenses its data to commercial firms that sell address-level or point source data about vacant addresses for those who need it outside the free HUD User website.

United States Census Bureau Data

The US Census Bureau is the principal data collection and publication arm of the federal government, and provides a wide range of data sources and products. These Census datasets are particularly relevant for small areas—the decennial census, the American Community Survey (ACS), the American Housing Survey (AHS), and the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program (aka OnTheMap).

Most people are familiar with the decennial census, which includes data on residential vacancy and is useful for tracking long-term trends. However, the data has some important caveats:

1. Only Residential Property: The survey does not gather information about the vacancy status of other property types such as commercial properties or vacant lots.
2. Broad Definition of “Vacant”: The Census Bureau defines a housing unit as vacant if it does not have a resident at the time of the survey, which encompasses properties most wouldn’t consider “blighted” (e.g., vacation homes, homes on the market, apartments in between tenants). To better understand which properties are truly “vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated” we often look at the properties in the “Other Vacant” category, which includes homes in foreclosure, homes in legal proceedings, and homes that may be abandoned or condemned.

The decennial census helps examine vacancy trends over long periods of time, but for a more current picture, communities can turn to the American Community Survey, which has been conducted annually since 2005. Because it draws from a smaller sample, ACS one-year estimates can be unreliable for small geographies. To address this, the Census Bureau pools five consecutive years of data into five-year ACS estimates, which are more reliable. However, even these can carry a significant margin of error at the census tract level. This is not to say ACS data should not be used, simply that users should be aware of its limitations.

Both the decennial census and ACS include some limited information on housing conditions. They track households that lack complete plumbing or kitchen facilities, are overcrowded, or are cost-burdened. Because physical and financial conditions are combined, this isn’t an ideal source for assessing property conditions specifically. Users can disaggregate the data through the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), but the geography is too broad to be useful at the neighborhood level. Both datasets are accessible at https://data.census.gov/, and commercial platforms like PolicyMap can simplify analysis for organizations without in-house GIS capacity.

The Census Bureau also conducts the American Housing Survey, which provides a deeper look at housing conditions than either the decennial census or ACS. Conducted biennially at the national level and periodically for selected metropolitan areas, the AHS collects detailed data on structural conditions, the age and adequacy of major systems like plumbing and heating, and residents’ assessments of their neighborhoods. This makes it a richer source for understanding the quality of the housing stock. However, AHS data is not available below the metropolitan area level, making its use for neighborhood- or parcel-level vacancy analysis more limited. It is nonetheless a valuable resource for understanding broader trends in housing conditions that can inform how communities frame their vacant property challenges.

Taken together, USPS and Census Bureau data offer a helpful starting point for understanding where vacant properties are located and how vacancy has changed over time. However, their limitations mean that any community serious about developing a vacant property strategy will need to supplement these sources with local data.

Local Data on Vacant Properties

Local data will almost always be a better source of information on property vacancy and condition than federal data because it is more timely and granular. It is possible that a vacant property dataset, or components of one, already exists in your community. Common data sources include:

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 vacant 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.

Each data source sheds light on a particular dimension of the neighborhood housing market. These datasets can be analyzed in several different ways, including (a) analyzing each individual dataset for relevant information; (b) analyzing one dataset over a period of time to identify trends; and (c) comparing different datasets to see how indicators relate to one another.

Conducting a Vacant Property Condition Survey

The above data sources are great starting points but they alone rarely provide everything needed to build a fully fleshed out vacant property strategy. That’s why many communities conduct windshield surveys of all parcels to gather information on property vacancy and condition. A windshield or parcel conditions 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.

Beyond filling data gaps, these surveys establish a baseline for tracking progress over time and help communities spend their limited resources more strategically.

Planning for a Vacant Property Conditions Survey

If your community is considering a parcel conditions survey, you should at minimum:

• Examine every parcel in a municipality
• Collect data on whether or not a structure is present on the parcel
• Collect basic data on the condition of structures (e.g., in good condition or needs to be demolished)
• Perform the survey in a relatively condensed time period (i.e., matter of months)
• Perform the survey on a semi-frequent basis (i.e., every few years)

Ideally, the survey should also:

• Get photos of each parcel
• Collect data on the condition of vacant land (e.g., dumping)
• Collect data on specific condition issues (e.g., open point of entry, peeling paint, porch sagging, roof damage)

Since neighborhood conditions are constantly changing, it is important to redo and update the property survey on a regular basis—ideally every three years, but at minimum every five.

Surveys also present a valuable opportunity to build partnerships and get community buy-in for a vacant property strategy from the start. Potential partners include:

• Residents and community organizations can provide feedback on the survey tool or serve as surveyors (though communities should think through how to compensate their time).
• Other government departments may be able to help with data collection or provide GIS and technological capacity your department lacks.
• Academic institutions can offer survey expertise, GIS support, and student volunteers. They can also serve as a stable long-term home for the data, insulated from the turnover that comes with election cycles.
• Data-centered nonprofits focused on generating and analyzing community data exist in many regions and states. The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership maintains a list of such organizations.
• Private sector partners can contribute through donated technology, expertise, or volunteers.

Conducting the Survey

There is no one “correct” way to do a vacant property and condition survey. A community of any size and with any budget can find ways to make a survey feasible. You can do it with pen and paper or use apps and specialized survey software. There are privately developed property survey apps like Iris by Tolemi, ArcGIS Survey123 by ESRI, and Survey by Regrid. Some communities and their partners have created their own apps for property surveys. Here are a few examples of different communities’ surveys:

• Cleveland area Property Inventories
• Flint Property Portal
• Detroit Motor City Mapping
• Restoring Trenton Vacant Property Survey

Using Vacant Property Data

The datasets listed above, as well as data gathered from surveys of vacant properties or property conditions, can often be useful in themselves. For example:

• Information on absentee owners or investor-buyers can be used to make a municipal rental licensing program more effective, by using the information for outreach to make sure that all absentee-owned properties are licensed.
• Information on vacant properties can be used to identify “tipping point” blocks, where scattered vacant properties are likely to be destabilizing entire otherwise stable blocks, and targeting those properties for action.
• Information on property conditions can be used to target municipal housing inspection resources more effectively.

To learn more about neighborhood data collection and analysis, download Neighborhoods by Numbers.