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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Is Whatcom County being deluged with Californians?

 Are we being deluged by big bucks Californians? Selling their Bay Area  homes for bank to come buy their escape from California in Whatcom County? Well...maybe not quite.  But the surging property market in Whatcom County  might allow you to think so inspired by articles like this on those leaving California: https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/653000-people-leave-california/103-f3c88956-791a-43ca-bc8f-bcbaa76cf790  This next Census article refers to recent updates on state migration patterns: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/geographic-mobility/state-to-state-migration.html

Sunday, November 29, 2020

GE WA 11/24/2020 Ballot Return Status Report for Gender, Age , Date Returned

Data and charts on Age and Gender for Returned Ballots for the WA GE 2020 below the break. Click to enlarge the charts.

Thursday, November 19, 2020

GE WA 11/18/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

November 24th is the county certification of the November general election. There are still 35,682 with status rejected (mostly Signature issues) in the November 18th matchbacks. 807 of these rejected ballots are in Whatcom County. 2,226 ballots in WA were "Too Late" to be tabulated.

Voters should visit https://voter.votewa.gov and check their ballot status. For ballot status other than "Accepted", voters may want to contact or visit their county election department websites found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors.  For Whatcom County, you can visit: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/1732/Current-Election for Whatcom County Election department contact information. 

Friday, November 6, 2020

GE WA 11/05/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

Key numbers above the break. More details after the break:

[1] "All Ballots:"
[1] 4,111,915

No Previous historical record of Voting in VRDB before 11/2020:
20:       <NA>  456,352 # No "LastVoted"

Voters by Last Voted Dates:
               
Category               "Total.Ballots" "PCT.Total.Ballots"
LastVoted2019orLater   "3109974.0"     "75.6"        
LastVoted2018orEarlier "545591.0"      "13.3"         
LastVoted2016orEarlier "230817.0"      "5.6"         
LastVoted2012orEarlier "57964.0"       "1.4" 

[1] "By Challenge Reason: Top 8"
                    ChallengeReason        N
 1:                 Not Challenged   4058596
 2:         Signature Does Not Match   36860
 3:                         Unsigned    7016
 4:                             HOLD    2048
 5:                           Review    1889
 6:              Ballot Style Change    1687
 7:             No Signature on File    1037
 8:                 Other than Voter     615

Rejected Ballots / All Ballots
round(53328/4111915,4) * 100
[1] 1.3 percent of all ballots currently rejected

Thursday, November 5, 2020

GE 11/04/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

Key numbers above the break. More details after the break:

[1] "All Ballots:"
[1] 4069665

No Previous historical record of Voting in VRDB before 11/2020:
20:       <NA>  440804 # No "LastVoted"

Voters by Last Voted Dates:
                       [,1]            [,2]               
Category               "Total.Ballots" "PCT.Total.Ballots"
LastVoted2019orLater   "3094826"       "76"          
LastVoted2018orEarlier "534037.0"      "13.1"         
LastVoted2016orEarlier "224900.0"      "5.5"         
LastVoted2012orEarlier "56505.0"       "1.4"  

[1] "By Challenge Reason: Top 7"
                     ChallengeReason       N
 1:                Not Challenged    4011243
 2:         Signature Does Not Match   35128
 3:                           Review    8949
 4:                         Unsigned    6519
 5:                             HOLD    2540
 6:              Ballot Style Change    1586
 7:             No Signature on File    1143

Rejected Ballots / All Ballots
round(58434/4011243,4) * 100
[1] 1.46 percent of all ballots currently rejected

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

1,586 Challenged Ballots in Whatcom County as of 11/03/2020

Voters should visit https://voter.votewa.gov and check their ballot status. For ballot status other than "Accepted", voters may want to contact or visit their county election department websites found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors.  For Whatcom County, you can visit: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/1732/Current-Election for Whatcom County Election department contact information. 

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

GE 11/03/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

For 11/03/2020, over 3.8M ballots are returned in WA with 47,518 challenged. Almost 29,904 of these challenges are signature not matching . Another 5,857  are missing signatures. Voters should visit https://voter.votewa.gov and check their ballot status. For ballot status other than "Accepted", voters may want to contact or visit their county election department websites found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors

For turnout, please see https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx  12% or 453,550 of all returned ballots were by voters who last voted in 2018 or earlier. 365,340 of all returned ballots were by voters whose 'LastVoted' field is "NA". These numbers suggest an increasing number of 'first time' and 'low propensity' voters in this very high turnout election.  And that's significant since it suggests that this group will play an important part in the election:

round((453550 + 365340) / 3782114,3) * 100 =

21.7 percent of returned ballots are potentially from 'low propensity' or 'first time' voters.

General election return ballot data can be found: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/2020-general-election.aspx .

Monday, November 2, 2020

GE 11/02/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

11/02/2020 without comment below. One matchback will be  returned before results Tuesday night. Matchbacks will continue to certification.

GE 10/31/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

 10/31/2020 without comment below. Two more matchbacks are returned before results tonight and Tuesday night, although the matchbacks will continue to certification.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

GE 10/30/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

For 10/30/2020, over 3.15M ballots are returned in WA with 37,696 challenged. Almost 24,863 of these challenges are signature not matching . Another 5,141  are missing signatures. Voters should visit https://voter.votewa.gov and check their ballot status. For ballot status other than "Accepted", voters may want to contact or visit their county election department websites found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors

For turnout, please see https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx  10.1 % or 318,444 of all returned ballots were by voters who last voted in 2018 or earlier. 251,000 of all returned ballots were by voters whose 'LastVoted' field is "NA". These numbers suggest an increasing number of 'first time' and 'low propensity' voters in this very high turnout election.  And that's significant since it suggests that by Tuesday this group may well be 20% or more of the electorate:

round((318444 + 251000) / 3155177,3) * 100 =

18 percent of returned ballots are potentially from 'low propensity' or 'first time' voters.

General election return ballot data can be found: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/2020-general-election.aspx .  

Thursday, October 29, 2020

GE 10/29/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

 For 10/29/2020, over 2.95M ballots are returned in WA with 35,658 challenged. Almost 22,973 of these challenges are signature not matching . Another ~5K are missing signatures. Voters should visit https://voter.votewa.gov and check their ballot status. For ballot status other than "Accepted", voters may want to contact or visit their county election department websites found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors

King county leads the the top five counties in turnout percentage at 62.8% Please see https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx   9.6% of all returned ballots were by voters who last voted in 2018 or earlier. 223,315 of all returned ballots were by voters whose 'LastVoted' field is "NA". These numbers suggest an increasing number of 'first time' and 'low propensity' voters in this very high turnout election. General election return ballot data can be found: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/2020-general-election.aspx .  

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

GE 10/28/2020 Ballot Return Status Report

For 10/28/2020, over 2.75M ballots are returned in WA with 34,217 challenged. Almost 21,563 of these challenges are signature not matching . Another ~5K are missing signatures. Voters should visit https://voter.votewa.gov and check their ballot status. For ballot status other than "Accepted", voters may want to contact or visit their county election department websites found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors

King county leads the the top five counties in turnout percentage at 56.3% Please See https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx    9.2% of all returned ballots were by voters who last voted in 2018 or earlier. 197,407 of all returned ballots were by voters whose 'LastVoted' field is "NA". These numbers suggest an increasing number of 'first time' and 'low propensity' voters in this very high turnout election. General election return ballot data can be found: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/2020-general-election.aspx

Based on past elections performances, a reasonable prediction for total votes would be 250K for the next two days then ~400K/day for the next 5 days. However, such a prediction would result in 5.25M returned ballots. Current total voters for this election are 4,866,924 although registrations will continue through election. 

GE 2020 10/27 Ballot Return Status Report

For 10/27/2020, over 2.56M ballots returned with ~32K challenged ballots in WA. Almost 19K of these ballots are signature matching challenges. Another ~5K are missing signatures. Voters will should visit https://voter.votewa.gov and check their ballot status. For ballot status other than "Accepted", voters may want to contact or visit their county election department websites found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors .


King county leads the the top five counties in turnout percentage at 53% based on October 7 VRDB registrants.  However King's current turnout percentage is actually 56% based on the latest registration data (Please See https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx ) This would suggest increases from October first time voter registration and/or reactivations.    8.7% of all returned ballots were by voters who last voted in 2018 or earlier. 174,176 of all returned ballots were by voters whose 'LastVoted' field is "NA" suggesting an increasing number of 'first time' voters in this election. General election return ballot data can be found: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/2020-general-election.aspx .  Based on past elections performances, a reasonable prediction for total votes would be 250K for the next two days then ~500K/day for the next 5 days. However, such a prediction would result in 5.25M returned ballots. Current total voters for this election are 4,866,924, although registrations will continue through election. Regardless of this comment, turnout will likely be record setting for every county in WA.


GE.Matchback code now in my Github: https://github.com/rferrisx/GE.Matchback.Analysis/blob/main/BallotReturnAnalysis.r Use at your own risk.

Monday, October 26, 2020

GE 2020 10/26 Ballot Return Status Report

10/26 Ballot Statistics Return

Over 2.2M ballots returned with ~29K challenged ballots. Almost 16K of these challenged are signature matching challenges.  Spokane leads the the top five counties in turnout percentage at 51% however four of the top five counties (SP, KI, SN,CR) are approaching 50% turnout. PI is last in that list with 38% turnout.  8.1% of all returned ballots were by voters who last voted in 2018 or earlier. 141,464 of all returned ballots were by voters who have no 'LastVoted' field suggesting an increasing number of 'first time' voters in this election.

GE 2020 Ballot Return Status 10/24/2020 :

10/24 Ballot Statistics Return
Over 2M ballots returned. ~27K challenges. Spokane leads the the top five counties in turnout percentage. 7.6% of all returned ballots were by voters who last voted in 2018 or earlier.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

WA 2020 General Election Ballot Return Data Page 10/20/2020 : 10/23/2020

This is a ballot return data analysis page for WA 2020 General election. I will compile as many aggregations as possible as sequential posting until 'Election Results' are returned. See https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ for more information. Beware the smaller fonts for tables.  'Ballot Statistics' data comes from:

Monday, October 19, 2020

GE2020: Four Charts for Whatcom County

These charts all aggregate gender by age group voting patterns in Whatcom County. The top chart is from October 2020 VRDB data. A non empty 'LastVoted' field simply means there is some history of electoral participation for that voter. The other three charts come from WA State elections voter participation data: Whatcom GE 2016, Presidential Primary 2020, Primary2020. Click on the charts to enlarge. There are several inferences one can make for Whatcom County and perhaps the nation by looking at these charts:

(1) Women register to vote more than men. But the dynamic I think that is really important is that women vote at a higher percentage of their registration than men. Disinterested, non voting men are thus a large target group. The 'older' part of that disinterested group of men (45 years of age or greater) will vote substantially more in Presidential general elections. That may help explain DJT's 2016 victory.

(2) 'Older voters' (45 years of age or greater) bring a more significant vote by volume and by registration to most elections. In all elections, this group of 'older voters' outperforms those that are younger both by volume and percentage turnout of registered voters per age group.

(3) Presidential general elections increase turnout even over Presidential primaries themselves and over Presidential election year primaries. Many who wouldn't cast a ballot otherwise vote in a Presidential general election. This increased turnout by low propensity voters probably creates unpredictable losses and victories during Presidential general election years.

(4) The number of active voters 45 and over who have not voted in any election is surprisingly small. 18 - 34 years of age are probably more prone to leaving ballots on their nightstand. But in fairness, the mobility of those ages probably produces many new first time voters. Given those generation's predilection for liberalism/activism, it is probably a provable inference that many of those lost votes are Democrats.

 Click on the charts to enlarge.

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Independent Expenditures, Organizational and Individual contributions by Legislative District as of 10.13.2020

I find $30M in Independent Expenditures (ICE) and Organizational plus Individual contributions for all WA 2020 statehouse (representative and senate) elections as of 10.13.2020. Probably more to come! Full list below the break. Click to enlarge the chart:


Thursday, September 17, 2020

The 42nd LD race for November 2020 in three charts

Provocative and timely data on what will be a razor thin series of margins in the competitive 42nd LD:

ratio =  JenniferSefzik/(JenniferSefzik + SharonShewmake)

  • 20 'purple' precincts with a ratio between .45, .559
  • 45 'blue' precincts with a ratio between 0, .449
  • 56 'red' precincts with a ratio between .56, 1
  • No.Party =  <NA> Not Voted in Presidential Primary
  • Republican = Selected Republican preferred party in Presidential Primary
  • Democrat = Selected Democrat preferred party in Presidential Primary
Tables and charts below. Click to enlarge the charts!

Sunday, August 23, 2020

"Too late" had "too much volume" in WA 2020 Primary. Was there a failure in voting week mail delivery?

John Servais has an important post on NW Citizen that discusses the need for  more drop boxes amidst a federal assault on Vote By Mail (VBM) in the United States. In theory, if you put your ballot on your stoop in Whatcom County on election morning, it should be shipped to Seattle for a post stamp before 8:00 PM that evening and then returned as an "Accepted" ballot Wednesday morning. One supposition is that such last minute ballots were not post-stamped in a timely fashion in this very high turnout Primary. Check https://voter.votewa.gov/ to determine your ballot disposition for this election.

 Data below the break. This post has tables which benefit from a wide screen. Here are my notes:

  • Challenges Statewide: The largest rejected ballot category ("Too Late") happened 20,958 times. There is no ballot cure for "Too Late". 1.5% of all ballots statewide had a final status of rejected. The top rejected ballot categories were:  "Too Late", "Signature Does Not Match", "Unsigned".
  • Return Method: By Mail reported 3:2 over Drop Box statewide. This ratio would vary by county. See "Drop Box vs Mail by County" in "Additional Tables" far below. Important to note that King County received almost all of the vote by Mail. 7,365 ballots were marked "Too Late" in King County. See "Top Three Challenges by County" in "Additional Tables" far below.

  • Return Method by Challenge: Counts for top three challenge categories for "Drop Box" and "Mail" return methods. All but 304 of the 20,958 "Too Late" rejected ballots came by mail. The amount of rejected mailed ballots far exceeds those dropped in a box. Drop boxes are promptly closed at 8 pm in most locations:

   Return Method Signature Does Not Match Too Late Unsigned

1:     Drop Box                     4989      304     1035

2:         Mail                     6925    20488     4750

  • Received Date for top three challenge categories. Many of the 20,488 "Too Late" ballots received by mail are two days late or more. About half of the "Too Late "  ballots are 6 days late or more possibly indicating substantial mail delays. 

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Charts from the Whatcom 2020 Primary

 Charts below cover Whatcom County Precincts for:

  1. Primary Ballots and August Registration by Presidential Preferred Party
  2. Primary Ballots and August Registration by Age (Decades)
Click to enlarge the charts. These charts have a lot of detail and small print and really need a widescreen.




Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Below are some GIS snapshots from the August 4th Primary

 Below are some GIS snapshots from the August 4th Primary. Click to enlarge the snapshots:

  1. Presidential primary declared Democrats registered for the 2020 Primary.
  2. Sharon Shewmake votes for the 42nd LD as of Friday 08/07/2020.

Sunday, August 9, 2020

The August 4 2020 Primary in Whatcom County

The August 4 2020 Primary in Whatcom County will have at least a 60% turnout. As of 08/07/2020 , here is how the result and matchback data stand: 

Friday, March 13, 2020

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Charts for 3/11/2020 Presidential Primary Data

Click to enlarge the Presidential Primary Cure Form JPG.   Go to https://voter.votewa.gov/ to check your "Ballot Status" today before the election certification is over for your county!
Below the break find three charts based on 3/11/2020 Presidential Primary matchback data and also February VRDB registration vs. turnout and accepted vs. turnout for:
  • Party
  • Decade
  • County
I may add Gender by Age, Party, and  County later.  Remember the lower Republican numbers are because only DJT was only one on the ballot for Republicans.
  • BOT == Both parties selected.These ballots will be rejected unless cured before certification.
  • NEI == "Neither party selected. These ballots will be rejected unless cured before certification.
  • FVRDB == February Voter Registration Data Base
  • TO == Turnout
  • Accepted.TO == Accepted Turnout
  • Decade == Age%/%10  e.g. 1: {18,19}, 2: {20:29}, etc
  •  Go to https://voter.votewa.gov/ to check your "Ballot Status" today before the election certification is over for your county!
If you like my work  and (god forbid!) my warnings have helped save your vote then consider a PayPal donation from the side widget. I am nobody's asset. "I fight for the users". Click to enlarge the tables:

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Data from 3/11/2020 Matchback

Accepted, Rejected, No Party and All Other Challenges by Age. Click to Enlarge

Data below from 3/11/202 matchback (day after election)

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Data from 03/10/2020 5PM Matchback:

Data below the break from the 03/10/2020 5PM Matchback:

Monday 03.09.2020 by County


Ballots Accepted/Rejected (Challenged) by Age Distribution

The charts above cover matchbacks and Ballot Statistics for 03.09.2010 5pm. Click on the Charts to Enlarge. It will be a scandal if a tight Bernie/Biden race is decided by the loss of 75K rejected ballots most of which (60K) are "NoParty" from and older vote contemporaneous with a weak youth vote. Below the break is a merged table of Presidential Primary ballot report status and ballot statistics for Monday 03.09.2020 5pm. The fields are: Democrat, Republican, Undeclared, Active (Voters), Voted (Ballots), Turnout. Note that real turnout will probably be much lower for many counties because Undeclared Party ballots will be discarded if not cured. Cure your damn ballots! Check https://voter.votewa.gov/. Check 'Ballot Status'. Call  or visit your County elections department if you are not "Accepted".

merge(Party,BS,by="County",all=TRUE)[,.(BallotsReceived=fsum(Ballots))]
   BallotsReceived
1:         1597237

merge(Party,BS,by="County",all=TRUE)[,.(D=fsum(D),R=fsum(R))]
        D      R
1: 984969 551396

merge(Party,BS,by="County",all=TRUE)[,.(DplusR=fsum(D) + fsum(R))]
    DplusR
1: 1536365

1597237 - 1536365
[1] 60872

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Friday 03.06.2020 by County

Below the break is a merged table of Presidential Primary ballot report status and ballot statistics for Friday 03.06.2020. The fields are: Democrat, Republican, Undeclared, Active (Voters), Voted (Ballots), Turnout. Note that real turnout will probably be much lower for many counties because Undeclared Party ballots will be discarded.

merge(Party,BS,by="County",all=TRUE)[,.(BallotsReceived=fsum(Ballots))]
   BallotsReceived
1:         1362696 # Total Ballots Received

merge(Party,BS,by="County",all=TRUE)[,.(D=fsum(D),R=fsum(R))]
        D      R
1: 798092 507449   # D and R ballots declared

merge(Party,BS,by="County",all=TRUE)[,.(DplusR=fsum(D) + fsum(R))]
    DplusR
1: 1305541         # Total D + R ballots declared

1362696 - 1305541
[1] 57155          # Ballots with Undeclared Party to Date

Friday, March 6, 2020

'7 Easy Steps for Voting in the WA Presidential Primary' and 'What Happens in you Don't Follow the Instructions!'

An excellent web site is providing the service of listing the ballot status of all WA voters. Please see https://votewashington.info/voter/wa to check whether or not your ballot has been accepted or not. The WA state site www.voteWA.gov is  the most official and straight forward path. Check "Ballot Status" after logging in . -RMF

As of Thursday's 03.05.2020 Presidential Primary matchback, "No Party" declarations (Votes without the proper party declaration) make up about 7% of all Ballots. By the end of this well participated election, tens of thousands of voters could have their ballots rejected  for not declaring a party. Check your "Ballot Status" at www.voteWA.gov . Ballot Return Statistics can be found here. Call your local county elections to "cure" your ballot.  Click to enlarge the charts and screenshots. Also see:




All State Rejected vs Accepted Ballots by Age and Challenged Groups: 'Non Party' Challenges vs All Other Challenges. 


If you did not correctly fill out the above on your voter envelope, your ballot has been rejected. Screenshot from:7 Easy Steps for Voting in the WA Presidential Primary

Sunday, March 1, 2020

'7 Easy Steps for Voting in the WA Presidential Primary' and 'What Happens in you Don't Follow the Instructions!'

3/3/2020 Update: An excellent web site is providing the service of listing the ballot status of all WA voters. Please see https://votewashington.info/voter/wa to check whether or not your ballot has been accepted or not. The WA state site www.voteWA.gov is  the most official and straight forward path. Check "Ballot Status" after logging in . -RMF

As of Friday's 02.28.2020 Presidential Primary matchback, "No Party" declarations (Votes without the proper party declaration) make up about 7% of all Ballots. By the end of this well participated election, tens of thousands of voters could have their ballots rejected  for not declaring a party. Check your "Ballot Status" at www.voteWA.gov . Call your local county elections to "cure" your ballot.  Click to enlarge the charts and screenshots. Also see:






All State Rejected vs Accepted Ballots by Age and Challenged Groups: 'Non Party' Challenges vs All Other Challenges. 


If you did not correctly fill out the above on your voter envelope, your ballot has been rejected. Screenshot from:7 Easy Steps for Voting in the WA Presidential Primary 

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Whatcom School Districts Election on February 11, 2020


Whatcom County school districts in block colors with precinct outlines in white.

All Whatcom County school districts  (and therefore the entire county or 146K voters ) have elections this February 11.  As of this Wednesday morning (2/05/2020), 27,030 plus ballots have been returned to Whatcom County Elections. Please see http://www.whatcomcounty.us/1732/Current-Election .  As of this Wednesday morning (2/05/2020), statewide turnout is about 19.2%. Please see https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/ballot-return-statistics.aspx .    You can check your registration or your 'Ballot Status' at voteWA.gov.  Please see https://voter.votewa.gov/WhereToVote.aspx. If you haven't received your ballot by now or your ballot status contact Whatcom County Elections.  This is a stampless ballot. The districts in this election include:

  • Bellingham School District 501
  • Ferndale School District 502
  • Blaine School District 503
  • Lynden School District 504
  • Meridian School District 505
  • Nooksack Valley School District 506
  • Mount Baker School District 507
  • Fire Protection District 8 

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Who owns real estate now?

Below are some articles with quoted selections I am currently reading that discuss ownership of real estate in urban centers in America and across the globe. I am thinking about these issues:

(1) How does the 'ghost ownership' and/or large scale 'corporate ownership' of housing effect our economy and social infrastructure?
(2) How does housing ownership as an 'asset class' effect pricing and supply?
(3) At one point does an 'over supply' of 'socially mismatched' housing types increase risk of a recession in the building industry?
(4) How do 'ghost ownership', 'over-pricing and speculation', mismatched market supply, rental and housing vacancy rates effect homelessness rates?
(5) Can we use Marxist economic theory to analyze the efficiency of the US housing market to make stronger cases for the use of:
  • vacancy taxes like those used in Washington, D.C. and Vancouver, BC.
  • more 'social justice' focused permit regulation and zoning
  • stronger local condemnation  and forfeiture laws in the case of "washing machine"  or laundered housing assets
  • what local actions can we use as citizens (e.g. more informed  and open ownership data, stronger condemnation laws, vacancy taxes, 'social justice' implementations of housing permits, etc.) to create a more fair and balanced housing market?

Monday, January 13, 2020

Rental Vacancy Rates across America

Sample data selection from 2015 - 2019(Q3 only) from the Census 2019 Housing Vacancies and Home Ownership . Click to enlarge.

Q3 Census data for 2019 Housing Vacancies and Home Ownership is now available.  The following charts and graphs are rental vacancy information.  Some researchers have come to believe that so called "ghost ownership" and high rental vacancy rates have created an artificial lack of housing supply (1).   Others believe there isn't enough home construction (2). I sought to look at the latest data for rental vacancies (up to Q3 2019) from the Census:
The table below gives Total Rented (43.2M)  and Total Rentals Vacant (3.1M) across different regions of the U.S. for Q3 2019.  I am using these two Census categories from the most recent housing data:
  • 8 RNTOCC Renter Occupied Housing Units K
  • 12 RENT Vacant Housing Units for Rent K
For the VacancyRate I am using ('adhoc') :  TotalVacant/(TotalRented+TotalVacant):

   GEO Region TotalRented TotalVacant VancancyRate
1:  US      1    43243000     3183000          6.9
2:  NE      2     8285000      477000          5.4
3:  MW      3     8472000      646000          7.1
4:  SO      4    15658000     1512000          8.8
5:  WE      5    10827000      548000          4.8