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Rental vacancy rate by county

Vacancy is the quietest expense in a DSCR deal. This page prices it: for every US county, the ACS vacancy rate and the annual dollar cost of that vacancy at the county's own median gross rent.

800 counties with 50,000+ people and reliable Census estimates are ranked below, with the 23 principal counties of major DSCR metros pulled out separately.

Reliable large counties800

Avg annual vacancy cost$910

Counties in source data3,222

Major DSCR metro counties23

The 23 metro counties that matter for DSCR loans

Principal county of each of the biggest metros, ranked by vacancy rate. The dollar figure is what one vacant unit costs per year at the county's median gross rent: this is the number that separates a 1.25× paper DSCR from a real 1.20× after vacancy.

County	Metro	Vacancy	Median rent	Cost / vacant unit / yr	Renter share
Harris County, TX	Houston, TX	9.3%	$1,401	$1,561	45.3%
Dallas County, TX	Dallas, TX	9.1%	$1,565	$1,715	49.2%
Wake County, NC	Raleigh, NC	8.9%	$1,623	$1,742	35.9%
Bexar County, TX	San Antonio, TX	8.8%	$1,354	$1,425	41.2%
Hinds County, MS	Jackson, MS	8.7%	$1,061	$1,102	41.7%
Shelby County, TN	Memphis, TN	8.0%	$1,232	$1,175	45.9%
Fulton County, GA	Atlanta, GA	7.9%	$1,732	$1,645	45.7%
Duval County, FL	Jacksonville, FL	7.9%	$1,475	$1,392	41.8%
Tarrant County, TX	Dallas, TX	7.8%	$1,547	$1,439	40.7%
Mecklenburg County, NC	Charlotte, NC	7.5%	$1,627	$1,469	44.9%
Clark County, NV	Las Vegas, NV	7.1%	$1,626	$1,381	42.2%
Hillsborough County, FL	Tampa, FL	6.4%	$1,667	$1,289	38.5%
Maricopa County, AZ	Phoenix, AZ	6.0%	$1,708	$1,231	34.8%
Hennepin County, MN	Minneapolis, MN	5.8%	$1,487	$1,044	37.3%
Miami-Dade County, FL	Miami, FL	5.5%	$1,829	$1,199	47.8%
Philadelphia County, PA	Philadelphia, PA	5.3%	$1,397	$897	48.2%
Cuyahoga County, OH	Cleveland, OH	5.3%	$1,060	$675	40.6%
Gwinnett County, GA	Atlanta, GA	5.1%	$1,810	$1,108	33.7%
Wayne County, MI	Detroit, MI	4.6%	$1,132	$625	35.2%
Travis County, TX	Austin, TX	4.6%	$1,744	$959	47.9%
Cook County, IL	Chicago, IL	4.5%	$1,435	$779	42.3%
Orange County, CA	Los Angeles, CA	4.4%	$2,434	$1,278	43.6%
Los Angeles County, CA	Los Angeles, CA	4.0%	$1,954	$937	54.1%

Highest vacancy counties (50k+ population, reliable data)

Most of these are vacation or retirement counties (Walton, Brunswick, Cape May, Baldwin) where the vacancy rate counts seasonal second homes. Read the trend, not the raw number.

County	Vacancy	Median rent	Cost / vacant unit / yr
Walton County, FL	37.9%	$1,741	$7,910
Lafayette County, MS	31.6%	$1,085	$4,121
Brunswick County, NC	27.9%	$1,351	$4,528
Cape May County, NJ	26.1%	$1,360	$4,267
Baldwin County, AL	24.9%	$1,277	$3,823
Sevier County, TN	20.5%	$1,072	$2,640
Monroe County, FL	19.6%	$1,999	$4,711
Beaufort County, SC	19.4%	$1,653	$3,846
Horry County, SC	19.3%	$1,255	$2,898
Buncombe County, NC	18.2%	$1,362	$2,970

Lowest vacancy counties (tightest rental supply)

County	Vacancy	Median rent	Cost / vacant unit / yr
Culpeper County, VA	0.0%	$1,423	$0
Skagit County, WA	1.4%	$1,536	$257
Dodge County, WI	1.7%	$988	$200
Clay County, FL	2.0%	$1,551	$364
Plymouth County, MA	2.0%	$1,747	$413
Somerset County, NJ	2.0%	$2,033	$493
Outagamie County, WI	2.0%	$1,057	$259
Monterey County, CA	2.0%	$2,055	$507
Dubuque County, IA	2.1%	$959	$238
Passaic County, NJ	2.1%	$1,621	$409

Look up any county

Pick a county to see its vacancy rate, median rent and the annual dollar cost of vacancy.

County

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vacancy rate

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median gross rent

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cost per vacant unit / yr

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typical vacancy month cost

State ranking by average annual vacancy cost per unit

Population-weighted mean of (vacancy rate × 12 × median gross rent) across each state's reliable counties. High-vacation-home states dominate the top.

State	Avg cost of vacancy / yr
HI	$1,794
DC	$1,630
FL	$1,545
NV	$1,340
SC	$1,321
GA	$1,315
TX	$1,307
MS	$1,240
AK	$1,231
NC	$1,169
LA	$1,142
AZ	$1,072
CA	$1,056
TN	$1,046
VA	$1,035
AL	$1,001
CO	$999
WV	$972
MD	$960
WA	$938
UT	$935
MN	$902
KS	$854
DE	$844
OR	$827
IN	$818
OK	$802
IA	$797
CT	$791
NY	$789
MT	$781
SD	$768
AR	$767
IL	$763
NM	$756
MA	$741
KY	$730
NH	$730
MI	$729
ND	$719
PA	$717
ME	$714
MO	$713
NJ	$709
RI	$708
ID	$690
NE	$628
WY	$614
WI	$585
OH	$576
PR	$393

How to use vacancy in a DSCR deal

Lenders underwrite DSCR at 1.20× partly because vacancy is the most predictable form of rent loss: the debt service is built to absorb a month here and there. But a 9% county like Harris or Bexar has almost no margin between 1.20× and negative cash flow, so a single extra vacant month erases the entire buffer on a financed deal. A 4.5% county like Cook or Travis leaves room.

The fix is not to reject high-vacancy counties. It is to price vacancy into rent and use the state ranking above to sanity-check that the rent you plan to charge actually covers the county's own vacancy cost. Use the DSCR loan calculator with rent reduced by the county's vacancy rate to see the DSCR that vacancy-adjusted cash flow supports.

Vacation-home counties at 25%+ vacancy are not broken markets; they are different businesses. A Walton County, FL rental that rents 20 weeks of the year at $2,400/week clears more than a 4%-vacancy apartment building; the ACS number describes the county's housing stock, not your unit's lease calendar. Underwrite the lease, not the county.

Method and sources

Vacancy rates and renter counts come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates covering 3,100+ counties and county-equivalents, fetched from the Census Bureau data API. Median gross rent is from the same ACS tables. The dollar cost of vacancy at median rent = vacancy rate × 12 × median gross rent, computed per county. Counties marked "unreliable" in the source data (small populations, high sampling error) and counties under 50,000 people are excluded from every ranking above.

All dollar figures are annual, computed from the latest available ACS release. Updated October 2026.

Common questions

What is a good rental vacancy rate for a DSCR loan?

Lower is better. Under 4% is a tight market where nearly every month of rent gets collected; 7% or higher is a market where one to two months of the year goes uncovered. Vacancy is already built into a DSCR loan at 1.20× (the ratio itself is a vacancy buffer), but counties at 9%+ vacancy need rent covers at the top of the market range, not the middle.

Which US counties have the highest vacancy rates?

Among counties with 50,000+ people and reliable ACS estimates, the highest are Walton County, FL (37.9%), Lafayette County, MS (31.7%), Brunswick County, NC (27.9%), Cape May County, NJ (26.2%) and Baldwin County, AL (25.0%). Most are vacation-home or retirement counties where seasonal housing inflates the vacancy rate, not weak rental markets.

Which counties have the lowest vacancy rates?

The tightest large counties include Skagit County, WA (1.4%), Clay County, FL (2.0%), Somerset County, NJ (2.0%), Outagamie County, WI (2.0%), and Monterey County, CA (2.1%). Sub-3% counties have almost no give in the rental supply: good for occupancy risk, bad if you need to lease up a new acquisition quickly.

How does vacancy cost me in real dollars?

Multiply the vacancy rate by 12 months, then by your monthly rent. A property renting for $1,500/month in a county with a 9% vacancy rate loses about $1,620 a year, roughly a full month of rent. That is the realistic carry cost before you turn a single wrench on a deal.

Where does this data come from?

The U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates covering 3,100+ counties and county-equivalents, via the Census Bureau data API. Gross rent, renter counts and vacancy counts come from the ACS subject tables; we then compute the annual dollar cost of vacancy at each county's median gross rent.

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