From Mortgage Crisis to Recession, 20-Year-Old American Community Survey Tracks Housing Booms and Busts
September 19, 2025
It’s been 20 years since the American Community Survey (ACS) began collecting detailed information on the U.S. population and the housing they live in, giving us a window into changes that reshaped the nation’s housing over two decades.
Despite the 2007 housing crash sparked by the subprime mortgage crisis and Great Recession, the nation’s housing stock continued to expand to accommodate a growing population — over 288 million people in households in 2005, the first year of the ACS, to a household population of nearly 332 million in 2024, the most recent data released last week.
But the type of housing built changed.
Despite the increase in total housing, the number of vacant homes rose by only about 570,000 units over 20 years, reflecting a tightening housing market for both owners and renters.
Of the more than 22 million houses added between 2005 and 2024, the majority — about 13.5 million — were still single-family detached homes, representing a 17.8% increase.
But housing in structures with 50 or more units nearly doubled. During that same period, 4.4 million more units were built, a 77.4% increase to 10.2 million in 2024.
Lower Vacancy Rates
Despite the increase in total housing, the number of vacant homes rose by only about 570,000 units over 20 years, reflecting a tightening housing market for both owners and renters.
The number of vacant homes for sale dropped by nearly half a million units from 1.3 million in 2005 to fewer than 850,000 in 2024. The homeowner vacancy rate (the number of units available for sale as a proportion of all the units for sale or owned) decreased from 1.7% in 2005 to 1.0% in 2024.
This has not been a steady decline. There were increases in homeowner vacancy rates because of the subprime mortgage crisis (up to 2.7% in 2008), followed by a tightening of homeowner vacancy (down to 0.8% in 2022 and 2023) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Homes vacant only part of the year (largely because they’re used for recreational or seasonal purposes) increased to about 4.3 million units in 2024, up from nearly 3.9 million units in 2005.
Rising Costs
In 2005, U.S. renters paid a median $728 dollars a month for rent and utilities, equal to $1,176 in 2024 when adjusted for inflation. According to the latest 2024 ACS, median renter cost (half paid more and half less) went up by $311 to $1,487.
Homeowners paid more than renters but their costs dropped over the 20-year period. The median monthly cost in 2005 was $961 ($1,552 adjusted for inflation). By 2024, it had gone down $157 to $1,395.
Part of the reason for the drop in owner cost was that more homes did not have a mortgage. The share of owned homes with a mortgage fell from 67.9% in 2005 to 59.7% in 2024.
Owners without a mortgage still pay property insurance and taxes, utilities and other fees when applicable such as mobile home and homeowners association (HOA)/condo fees, but all these costs typically account for a smaller portion than mortgages: in 2024, the median monthly cost for owners without a mortgage was $664 compared to $2,035 for those with a mortgage.
