NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- High residential vacancies are killing many housing markets, as foreclosed homes sit on the market and depress sale prices and property values.

And it's only getting worse: The national vacancy rate crept up to just over 13% according to last week's decennial census report. That's up from 12.1% in 2007.

So if the government can't see form this that their lackluster attempts to do something to stop the bleeding I don't know what will convince them. Why don't they come out and speak to the people actually doing business and living in this economy and get the real ways to fix things.