Barricading — 17,787 cases
An order to board a building up. This is not a complaint about a building and not somebody's opinion that it looks empty: it is the city's record that somebody was sent to close one, with a date. As an early signal that a building is coming empty, nothing else this city publishes is as direct, and it is the one the report leads with.
Vacant and foreclosed registration — 7,193
Buildings the city requires to be registered while they stand empty. A registration is a duty complied with, so this register is a list of owners who did the paperwork rather than a list of every empty building. It has one hard limit: the file carries no street address on any row, only a coordinate and a neighbourhood, which is why there is no filing list for it here.
Hazardous buildings — 707
Buildings the city has declared hazardous, some with a demolition date beside them. A much smaller and much stronger finding than either of the above.
The Vacated Building Maintenance Licence — 67
A licence for keeping an empty building, which almost no city keeps as a register at all. Sixty-seven is not a citywide picture of vacancy; it is a small, specific, real thing, and the report says which.
What none of them is
None of these counts empty storefronts. Cincinnati has no commercial vacancy tax and files no vacancy register for retail, so where another city's report answers that question this one does not, and says so.
Counts run 7 September 2026.