Nearly 19 million homes vacant nationwide

More than 18.7 million homes stood vacant in the U.S. as of the second quarter of this year, as banks continued to seize properties from delinquent borrowers, according to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Foreclosures accounted for 7.8 million of the vacant properties. Vacancy rates were lowest in the northeast, at 2 percent, while they were highest in the south, at 2.7 percent. The report comes on the heels of news that the unemployment rate for June was the highest in nearly 26 years and the U.S. delinquency rate has risen to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9 percent.