The United States is wrestling with a massive housing shortage — with more than 4 million housing units needed to meet demand. The lack of affordable housing has caused record-high rent burdens and soaring homelessness. More than 770,000 people were officially counted as homeless last year, the highest in modern history. President Donald Trump is even musing about whether to declare a national emergency to address it.

At the same time, there are nearly 15 million vacant homes across the US, according to LendingTree, a platform that connects borrowers with banks offering loans. More than a third of these — over 5 million — are concentrated in just the country’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. Could already existing homes be a simple solution to the housing crisis?

The idea sounds appealingly intuitive. Earlier this year, I wrote about the idea of seniors renting out their spare bedrooms. It seemed feasible that the same logic — easing pressure through using existing vacancies — could be applied to entire houses.

But a closer look at the data reveals why vacant housing isn’t such a quick fix for America’s broader affordability crisis. The Census Bureau’s housing survey definition classifies a housing unit as vacant if no one is living in it at the time of the interview — a category that can cover everything from move-in-ready apartments to vacation homes or units held off the market. Not all of those can easily become affordable housing. The problem isn’t just about having enough physical structures — it’s also about having the right homes, in the right places, at the right prices.

Where the push for reviving vacant housing makes sense

In places like Baltimore and Detroit, addressing abandoned homes is essential for the cities’ futures. Detroit, for example, once had nearly 100,000 vacant houses at its worst point after the Great Recession. These are often buildings that are falling apart and have been empty for years, making whole blocks unsafe and run-down.

The city’s land bank authority offers a model for how cities can tackle large-scale abandonment. Backed by a mix of federal and local funds plus property-sale revenue, the land bank resolves ownership issues, demolishes, or stabilizes unsafe buildings, and then sells properties “as is,” often........

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