There are over 1.98 million properties across the United States sitting empty right now, according to data we pulled in August 2026.
That number is not a survey estimate.
It is a count of individual parcels, address by address.
You have probably seen a bigger number in the news.
Most articles say roughly 15 million.
Both numbers are correct, and the difference between them is the whole point of this post.
One of them you can actually work. The other one you cannot.
What Counts as an Empty Property
An empty property is one where nobody currently lives.
That sounds obvious, but the definition matters because it decides which houses end up on your list.
DealMachine flags a parcel as vacant using a few signals together:
USPS mail return flags. Mail sent to the address comes back undelivered.
Utility status indicators. Service has been shut off or was never turned back on.
Occupancy records. No current resident is tied to the address in available records.
One signal on its own can be wrong.
A snowbird gets mail forwarded for four months, and the house is not really available.
Stacking the signals is what makes the flag reliable.
Vacant is also not the same thing as abandoned.
A vacant house has an owner who is reachable and who still pays the taxes.
An abandoned house has usually been walked away from, and the title is often a mess.
Vacant is the better starting point for most beginners, and it is a much larger pool.
Where the Vacant Homes Are
The table below ranks the top 15 states, pulled in August 2026. Together they hold 1,321,535 properties, or 66.5% of the national total.
How to Get From 1.9 Million Down to a Callable List
Two million properties is not a list. It is a starting universe. The work is narrowing it.
Here is the order I would use:
Pick a geography you can service. Start with a county or a set of zip codes, not a state. State-level numbers are useful for deciding where to operate, not for pulling leads.
Add a second signal. An empty house owned by someone who lives out of state is a much stronger lead than an empty house alone. Layer in absentee owner data and the list shrinks fast.
Add equity. An owner with deep equity can accept a discounted cash offer and still walk away with money. An owner who is underwater cannot, no matter how motivated they sound.
Skip trace and start calling. A list you never contact is worth zero.
Combining vacancy, out-of-state ownership and equity gives you a focused list of owners to investigate in your county.
DealMachine’s property search and skip tracing tools help you find those properties and look up owner contact details. Start with one county, apply those three filters, and build your first outreach list.