Every Texas county, shaded by the share of housing units that are vacant. Darker counties have a higher vacancy rate. County borders are the U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary (cb_500k).
In a typical Texas county, 18.2 percent of housing units are vacant, the midpoint among all 254 counties. That county rate is not a state figure. When every housing unit is counted once, 9.6 percent are vacant, because Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and the suburban ring sit well below the middle and hold most of the stock. Kenedy County is 75.4 percent vacant among 69 homes, the highest, and Williamson County is 3.9 percent, the lowest. Nine counties are at 40 percent or more, almost all of them small and rural, while 1.14 million vacant homes sit mainly in the big metros. Harris alone has 156,504 vacant units at an 8.3 percent rate.
In short
18.2%typical county ratethe middle county, not a state figure
9.6%of all housing unitsevery unit counted once
75.4%Kenedy Countyhighest vacancy rate
1.14Mvacant homesall 254 counties added together
9counties at 40% or morealmost all small and rural
The complete ranking, all 254 counties, nothing left out. Kenedy County leads at 75.4 percent among 69 homes, then McMullen at 48.5 and Edwards at 47.5, thinly peopled South and West Texas counties. Nine counties are at 40 percent or more. The twenty-fifth county, Duval, is 32.5 percent, and the fiftieth, San Jacinto, is 27.7 percent. The middle county sits at 18.2 percent. Forty-two counties fall below 10 percent, and Williamson is last at 3.9 percent. A county rate is not a state figure.
Every county, ranked by vacant housing units rather than the rate. Harris has 156,504, about 13.7 percent of all vacant homes in Texas. Dallas, Bexar, Tarrant and Hidalgo follow, and those five counties hold 35.1 percent of the statewide count. The largest ten hold 46.0 percent, and the largest 25 hold 63.2 percent. The median county has 1,555 vacant homes. High rates and large counts are not the same map: Kenedy leads the rate ranking with 52 vacant homes, while Williamson sits at the bottom of the rate ranking with 9,846.
Figure 3
Vacancy rate against housing units
Housing units against vacancy rate · one point per row, 254 of 254 plotted
Each point is one Texas county. Vacancy rate and housing-stock size move together only weakly: the correlation with total housing units is -0.28, so larger counties tend to have lower rates, but size explains little of the pattern. Harris is 8.3 percent vacant with 1.88 million housing units. Hidalgo sits at 12.6 percent. Small counties run the full range, from Kenedy at 75.4 percent among 69 homes to Glasscock at 4.8 percent among 463. Geography and seasonal housing, not size alone, are what the ranking is showing.
Table 1
All counties
254 rows · 5 columns · sorted by vacancy rate, high to low
The full dataset: all 254 counties with vacancy rate, vacant housing units, occupied units, and total housing units, sorted by vacancy rate and re-sortable on any column. Use the filter box to jump straight to a county by name. The Census published a figure for every Texas county, so no cells are suppressed. A county rate is not a state figure; averaging the 254 rates would weight Loving County the same as Harris.
Vacant in ACS table B25002 is any housing unit that is not occupied. It includes units for rent or sale, seasonal and recreational homes, and other vacant units, not only abandoned houses.
The vacancy rate is vacant units divided by total housing units in that county.
A county rate is not a state figure. Averaging the 254 rates would weight Loving County the same as Harris. The 9.6 percent figure counts every housing unit once. The typical-county figure is the median of the 254 county vacancy rates.
The Census published a figure for every Texas county. No counties were suppressed. The smallest counties, including Kenedy (69 housing units) and Loving (47), have large margins of error, so those rates can move from year to year.
