The unoccupied real estate thing is a really odd problem. You'd think with how valuable real estate is property wouldn't sit vacant, but when you start looking around for them, they're everywhere. There are three SFHs that have been empty long-term within a block of me. Two of them belong to elderly people in nursing homes without family and are just waiting for them to die. They've been vacant for years. The third had owners pass away and the kids are fighting over the list price for months.