How could it be that so many houses appear to be empty, without neighbours waving hello, or mowing their lawns, or holding block parties, or giving out candy at Halloween? How could so many people be wrong?

The response to the city-commissioned study on empty housing was predictably immediate. Some media were quick to use the report's low numbers as proof that speculative buying with foreign money was a myth.

The study, which was intended to finally illuminate both city hall and residents on the extent of empty housing in Vancouver, was anti-climactic, to say the least. It reported that a mere one per cent of single-family homes were empty, a figure that hasn't budged much since 2002. The overall vacancy rate was at 4.8 per cent. Only condo vacancies raised an eyebrow, at around 10,000 units. So what happened?

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The answer to that question is far more nuanced than the report's use of BC Hydro electricity data can provide. The author of the study, Bruce Townson, is frank about the study's limitations – and there are several.

Houses that had the electricity turned off – such as old houses that sit empty as they await permits for demolition and redevelopment – were not counted in the study. They were only counted after electrical service had been restored for a full year. In this market, there have been many cases of homes sitting empty, without electricity, awaiting redevelopment. Considering that there are 950 house demolition permits taken out on average each year, that's potentially a high number of houses that didn't make the cut. Many newly built houses were also exempt. They too were only considered empty once the electricity was turned on, and remained on, for one year.

Houses that only have visitors during summer months were counted as occupied. Houses that sit empty but have a caretaker come by and generate electricity use at least five times a month were also considered occupied. And a house with the lights on timers and a housekeeper or maintenance person who comes by and uses the electricity, were also counted as lived in.

"If you have timers on at the same time, day to day, but then Jerry comes in and introduces a load every Monday and Wednesday each week and introduces high electricity use for a couple of hours on those days, and leaves, then that would be occupied, based on the data we have," said Mr. Townson.

As well, the study did not include data from 2015, which was a record year for Vancouver real estate. From January, 2015 to January, 2016, the average house price soared 46 per cent, all the way up to $2.87-million. In Vancouver proper, the benchmark price for a detached house hit a record $1.94-million in January, or a 26-per-cent gain from a year earlier.

"This is not out of design; this is out of the limitation of data," says Mr. Townson.

Mr. Townson says the report needs context, and further research is required. It is by no means intended as a comprehensive study on the uses of housing, or an explanation for Vancouver's affordability problem.

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"When you look at it through the lens of what the city of Vancouver is trying to do, they are trying to address affordability – low vacancy rates – and you have to look at long-term non-occupancy, not short-term stuff."

Councillor Kerry Jang says the chief concern was to find out if houses were empty for a year at a time. He says the report is proof that foreign buyers are not hiding their money in houses and leaving them to fall into disrepair. He has no issues with a homeowner who only uses a house for a week or two out of the year, or a couple of months.

"It goes back to the fact that they assume an Asian investor is parking his money in Vancouver, leaving their house empty. That's what I'm taking issue with here. It's your property. If you want to live in it half the year, that's your business. Are you to tell me I have to live in my house for eight months of the year? What happens if I don't? Are you going to take it away from me? That's the argument."

Point Grey MLA David Eby, who's raised the issue of empty houses in the media, says he was shocked at both the survey results, and also the media reaction, which tied the results to proof that foreign investment was a "myth." He calls the methodology "conservative."

"We have a shocking number of empty condos and a huge number of underused homes. The people who are trying to sell this [myth] line should spend a little time in Point Grey, in Kerrisdale, and they will see the reality for themselves, in the stores and on