Homeownership is falling at an alarming pace, despite the fact that home prices have fallen. Affordability is very at the best it has been in almost 13 years and inventories of new and existing homes are still running quite high. There are definitely great deals to be had for the buyer that is willing to commit.

The vacancy rate is very high. There were 18.4 million vacant homes in the U.S. in Q4 '10 (11 percent of all housing units vacant all year round), which is actually an improvement of 427,000 from a year ago. The number of vacant homes for rent fell by 493 thousand, as rental demand rose. Slideshow: 10 U.S.

So think about it. Eleven percent of the houses in America are empty. This as builders start to get more bullish. As one can see, there are excellent deals to be had as there is a huge inventory to choose from. This truly is a buyer's market.

I can be reached for comment at

Patrick McCarthy
866-901-3576
PatrickM@Northpointe.com