[dionidium]

Unfortunately, like everybody involved in the housing space, I’ve of course heard this claim about millions of vacant homes many times.

It’s a notoriously silly take.

Most vacant homes covered by that statistic are either 1) uninhabitable shells in low-demand rust-belt metros; or 2) houses that are for sale or between tenants. A small percentage of them are second homes. And while you could of course raise taxes on those homes (a policy I’d probably support in some form), it’s unlikely that it’d have much of an impact on the overall problem.