The vacancy sign is blazing over house divisions across the US. About 1 in 10 houses in America have no one living inside them, according to new data from the Census, CNBC reports. (Update: while technically correct, this number includes other kinds of properties like abandoned farm house. The more typically used number, the home-vacancy rate, is 2.7%, up from 2.5% the previous quarter).

What this could mean is that more households are choosing to rent rather than buy. (To see if that’s cost-effective for you, check out this chart). With the housing Armageddon of the past few years, you can hardly blame them for sitting it out.

Nearly 11 Percent of US Houses Empty [CNBC]

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