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Housing Inventory Estimate: Total Housing Units in the United States ETOTALUSQ176N

Thousands of Units • Quarterly • Not Seasonally Adjusted
Source: FRED | Last updated: 2025-07-28 09:31:08-05 | Range: 2000-04-01 → 2025-04-01

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Trend
Momentum

Trend Heat Strip & Seasonality

YoY Heat Strip

≤ −5% Decline > +5% Growth

Seasonality (Average by Month)

What am I looking at?

What it shows: the average level of the series for each calendar month (Jan…Dec) across the full history.

  • Computation: for each month m, take the mean of all observations whose calendar month = m (all years equally weighted).
  • Interpretation:
    • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA): clear recurring peaks/troughs by month.
    • Seasonally adjusted (SA): should be fairly flat (seasonality already removed).
  • Caveats: uses raw levels, so long-run trend can dominate; best for monthly series. For a relative view, consider a seasonal index (month_mean ÷ overall_mean − 1) or limit to the last N years.

Distribution & Extremes

Histogram of Monthly Changes

Context

Recent Prints

DateValueMoMYoY

Release

Housing Vacancies and Homeownership
See full release page
Typical schedule and next expected date may vary; check the release page for official timing.

What this measures & how to read it

Housing unit is a house, an apartment, a group of rooms, or a single room occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live separately from others in the structure and which have direct access from the outside of the building or through a common hall. For vacant units, the criteria of separateness and direct access are applied to the intended occupants whenever possible. If the information cannot be obtained, the criteria are applied to the previous occupants. Tents and boats are excluded if vacant, used for business, or used for extra sleeping space or vacations. Vacant seasonal/migratory mobile homes are included in the count of vacant seasonal/migratory housing units. Living quarters of the following types are excluded from the housing unit inventory: Dormitories, bunkhouses, and barracks; quarters in predominantly transient hotels, motels, and the like, except those occupied by persons who consider the hotel their usual place of residence; quarters in institutions, general hospitals, and military installations except those occupied by staff members or resident employees who have separate living arrangements.

Tip: focus on multi-month trends to reduce noise from seasonality, one-off shocks, and revisions.