Ok, I agree that you have to normalize the number of vacant homes. The total number of homes is the largest denominator that makes sense. My doubt was if the denominator could be something smaller than the number of total homes.
In different words, my knowledge of the housing market is not sufficient to say if 2.7% counts as small or large. Why does it “seem really low”?
Analogous example that comes to my mind: if I am a male searching for a female mate, I prefer cities with higher female/male ratio. Say town A has 49-51, and town B has 51-49. Is a 2% difference large or small? I argue it could be large, for what matters for finding a mate: if most couples in a town are already locked, i.e., people in long term relationships, then the “free market” of dating is much more gender-skewed than a 2% difference.
To be concrete: say 90 people are paired, and 10 are single. Then removing the paired 45:45, the gender ratio within singles remains 4:6 in town A, and 6:4 in town B, i.e., in town A there are 2 single females for each 3 single males.
Thus the set that makes the ratio more intuitively “large” or “small” is the set of singles rather than the set of all people.
Getting back to housing: maybe there is a smaller set contaning all vacant homes, or even a more restrictive set to consider that contains only some vacant homes, that is more appropriate. I don’t know though.
Ok, I agree that you have to normalize the number of vacant homes. The total number of homes is the largest denominator that makes sense. My doubt was if the denominator could be something smaller than the number of total homes.
In different words, my knowledge of the housing market is not sufficient to say if 2.7% counts as small or large. Why does it “seem really low”?
Analogous example that comes to my mind: if I am a male searching for a female mate, I prefer cities with higher female/male ratio. Say town A has 49-51, and town B has 51-49. Is a 2% difference large or small? I argue it could be large, for what matters for finding a mate: if most couples in a town are already locked, i.e., people in long term relationships, then the “free market” of dating is much more gender-skewed than a 2% difference.
To be concrete: say 90 people are paired, and 10 are single. Then removing the paired 45:45, the gender ratio within singles remains 4:6 in town A, and 6:4 in town B, i.e., in town A there are 2 single females for each 3 single males.
Thus the set that makes the ratio more intuitively “large” or “small” is the set of singles rather than the set of all people.
Getting back to housing: maybe there is a smaller set contaning all vacant homes, or even a more restrictive set to consider that contains only some vacant homes, that is more appropriate. I don’t know though.