via BoingBoing, comes news that 1 in 9 American homes are currently unoccupied. Empty. Warehoused.

"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, but not for the reasons you'd think.... The number of vacant homes for rent fell by 493 thousand, as rental demand rose. 471,000 homes are listed as "Held off Market" about half for temporary use, but the other half are likely foreclosures."

Held off market??!? 

Ain't American capitalism grand? I guess it's okay that all these buildings are empty, since no one is homeless, no one is living in overcrowded unsafe places they can't afford. 

But this is just a teaser. There is probably so much more information to be gathered - like where they're concentrated, who owns them, how long they've been vacant, etc? Wouldn't it be nice if there were some real, reliable statistics and information on this?