US has enough empty houses to hold all of Britain

100 Abandoned Houses: Photographs of Detroit Paul Kedrosky crunches numbers from Bloomberg and makes them far more astounding:

According to the latest data, the number of vacant U.S. homes touched 18.7-million in the second quarter. That is a daunting figure, of course, but it is more fun to put it in context. Assuming four people per household, the U.S. currently has enough surplus housing to put the entire population of the U.K., with room left over for Israel.

Stat of the Day: US Has Enough Empty Houses to Hold All of Britain