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What if every empty lot currently up for sale in the U.S. had a new home built on it?
It would shave 6.3 percent off the nation’s housing shortage overnight, according to new research from Zillow.
More than 300,000 such empty lots five acres or smaller were listed for sale on Zillow in June, accounting for 17.4 percent of all properties for-sale.
Zillow currently estimates the U.S. housing shortage at roughly 4.7 million homes, meaning that, if each lot had one home built on it, there would be a 6.3 percent improvement. The figure is conservative; The median lot for sale spans 0.57 acres, which would allow for more than a single home.
More than 300,000 empty lots listed for sale represent “the lowest-hanging fruit” in addressing a housing shortage, argued Kara Ng, senior economist at Zillow.
The number of empty lots has remained stable nationally over the past five years, she noted, with 286,060 in 2025 and 288,358 in 2021.
The five states with the most empty lots listed in June are Florida (42,601), Texas (40,907), California (18,508), North Carolina (14,226) and Georgia (10,334), which are consistently at the top of the list over the years, according to Ng.
In some states, the number of empty lots represent just a small portion of the new housing needed to close the gap.
“It’s great that there’s a lot of empty lots you can build on in California,” Ng said. “But this is where building one home per lot won’t be enough. You have to really increase density in these places to be able to make up for the housing shortfall.”
Empty lots make up more than one-third of all for-sale listings in three states: North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska, with 46, 39 and 35 percent, respectively. Overall, rural markets have the highest concentration of empty lots, at 25 percent of all for-sale listings, compared to 14 percent in the suburbs and 9 percent in urban areas, according to data.
Rural lots are also the least expensive on a per-acre basis with a median of roughly $75,000 per acre, compared to more than $181,000 per acre in suburban areas and about $500,000 per acre for urban lots.
The priciest land can be found in six states where the typical empty lot is listed for over $200,000: Rhode Island ($325,000), Utah ($284,380), Delaware ($252,500), Massachusetts ($225,000), Idaho ($215,000) and New Jersey ($209,450).
The land might be available, but regulatory and financial hurdles present significant barriers to transforming these empty plots into housing, according to Ng.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which became a law July 10, can bring a positive impact, the Zillow economist noted. This legislation includes over 40 provisions to speed up new home building and modernize housing programs. However, industry experts are skeptical it can bring significant impact as it makes no new federal spending.
“When you have a problem of this scale, the reform will take time,” Ng said. “But what I’m optimistic about is we’re moving in the right direction.”