District rental vacancy rates below U.S. average

Rental vacancy rates—the percent of housing units unoccupied—finished below the U.S. average in 1999 for Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin. Rental vacancy rates in the Ninth District in 1999 ranged from 5.2 percent in Minnesota to 10.6 percent in North Dakota. Minnesota and Wisconsin rates have remained below the U.S. average during the 1986 to 1999 period, while North and South Dakota have remained above the U.S. average sine 1996.

Rental units comprise about one-third of the 199.5 million housing units in the United States. In 1999, U.S. vacancy rates for rental housing units were highest outside metropolitan areas, at 10.1 percent, and lowest in the suburbs, at 7 percent. (See map for U.S. rental vacancy rates by state.)