ANDERSON — The 2010 census counted 131,636 people in Madison County but also found nobody living in about one of every eight housing units, a figure above the state average and approaching twice as high as 10 years earlier.
The census reports a vacancy rate of 12.1 percent for owner-occupied housing units and rental property for the county. That’s an increase from 6.8 percent in the 2000 census.
The 2010 vacancy rate across Indiana was 11.1 percent.
Blame the real-estate bubble that burst in the last decade and a local economy that has a shortage of jobs, a local real estate agent said.
“It’s very difficult for people these days,” said Linda Babbitt, an agent at Gold Key Properties, which deals in rentals and sales. “People are on unemployment, they can’t find jobs ... they’re living together to reduce costs,” she said.
Thousands of area homeowners got stuck with adjustable-rate mortgages during the bubble in which interest rates reset and they could no longer afford their homes. “It puts the payment they did have out of reach,” Babbitt said, so they instead have opted to rent. “With a rental, they have a fixed number.”
Others who own homes that can’t sell are converting them to rentals, said Babbitt, who’s been dealing in property locally for 22 years. With rising costs of basic services such as sewage and trash collection, she said, “Some of the owners are having to include utilities just to get their properties rented.”
What Babbitt is seeing is reflected in the census data. In 2010 in Madison County, the bureau reports:
♦ Of the 59,068 housing units in the county, 29.1 percent were rentals. In 2010, 25.8 percent of units were rentals. The county also added more than 3,000 housing units in the last 10 years.
The number of people living with friends, roommates or relatives other than immediate family increased: 10.7 percent of county residents lived with another relative or a nonrelative not including an unmarried partner in 2010. Just 8 percent did so in 2000.
♦ The average number of people per rental unit rose to 2.38 people in 2010 compared with 2.25 in 2000.
Vacant housing units include those that the census says are for sale or for rent, and those that have been sold or rented but are not occupied. But the census also reports “other” vacant units that reflect the fallout from the real estate meltdown: foreclosures and homes where the owners walked away. More than a third of the county’s vacant units fall into that category.
There are 2,664 housing units that are vacant and not for sale or rent in the county, according to the census. In comparison, there are just 2,530 units that the census reports as vacant and for rent and 1,259 vacant and for sale. The census did not report this information in 2000.
Anderson Municipal Development Director Michael Widing said he’s not surprised by census figures that show the city has a housing unit vacancy rate of 16.2 percent. As the official in charge of building inspections for the city, he’s witnessed a rise in the number of vacant properties. The city’s vacancy rate is identical to that of Kokomo; Muncie’s rate is a bit lower at 14.7 percent. “It’s not indicative that they’re all unsafe structures,” Widing said of vacant units. And while he acknowledged the city has been battered economically in the past 10 years, he said, “I believe we’re on our way back.”
He said construction investment in the city hit $168 million last year, more than twice the $81 million in permits issued in 2009.
But Babbitt said there’s a simple reason for the increase in housing vacancies, and a solution that’s not so simple.
“People have to have money to rent or buy,” she said. “The only thing that can solve this problem is new jobs in the city.”
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