Definition:
Average days vacant measures the mean number of calendar days a unit sits empty between a resident's move-out date and a new resident's move-in date. It encompasses both the physical unit turn process (make-ready time) and the leasing process (the time from availability to lease execution and occupancy). Communities with healthy leasing pipelines may have low average days vacant even with moderate turn times, because units are pre-leased before becoming available. Tracking the two components separately provides more diagnostic value than the aggregate alone.
Why it matters:
Average days vacant is a direct measure of revenue leakage at the unit level. At current market rent levels across most major metros, each additional day of vacancy carries a tangible daily revenue cost, and across a property of 200 or more units with regular turnover, even a three-to-four day reduction in average days vacant can produce tens of thousands of dollars in annual revenue recovery. The metric also reveals whether vacancy loss is primarily an operational problem (slow turns), a leasing problem (slow lead conversion), or a demand problem (insufficient traffic) - each of which requires a different intervention. Paired with turn time and lead-to-lease data, average days vacant provides a comprehensive view of where the vacancy cycle is longest and most improvable.
