I had to look this up and Lee Co only has 450,000 houses. So that would be 5% of ALL houses currently on the market.
That really doesn't sound so bad.
Florida, more than most states, is a region of transients. Relatively few are born in Florida, grow up there, and stay there as young and then not-young adults. It's, frankly, God's Waiting Room. People come there at 50, selling the business, or 65, retiring, and live out their days.
Figure that the average lifespan is now 80 years (a bit less, now, tied to some modern medical interventions) that's 15 years in Florida. And not all people will be able to live independently all those years. They may be moving into children's homes or assisted-living centers, and the house needs to be sold. Or they could have gone on to the next level, and the estate or tax collector is selling the property.
Now. Two million vacant homes in all Florida? I'd have to look up how much housing is in the state, but, while that seems shocking, it may not be. That would include homes recently completed; homes empty due to planned demolition, condemnation, or other massive change in status, for a variety of reasons.
Does it include seasonally-empty homes, like those of wealthy snowbirds? Does it include properties purchases as income streams, used for short-term or seasonal rentals?
Does it include Black Rock speculative buy-ups, many done before the situation turned into a crisis, and now, not rentable, because no rational person is going to pay $10k a month on rent?
How many of those empty homes are connected to estates in probate, or homes recently transferred, out of Probate, to owners who live elsewhere? Children of deceased who inherited the homes.
The figure needs to be put in perspective. This loud, low-IQ real-estate dood, seems more interested in spinning a Narrative than in informing. I don't care how many decades he has in the market.