diff --git a/modules/users/default.nix b/modules/users/default.nix
index 58156d24..a945fb48 100644
--- a/modules/users/default.nix
+++ b/modules/users/default.nix
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ in
               "-UID" v.uid
               "-GID" v.gid ]
               ++ (lib.optionals (v.description != null) [ "-fullName" v.description ])
-              ++ (lib.optionals (v.home != null) [ "-home" v.home ])
+              ++ [ "-home" (if v.home != null then v.home else "/var/empty") ]
               ++ [ "-shell" (if v.shell != null then shellPath v.shell else "/usr/bin/false") ])} 2> /dev/null
 
             # We need to check as `sysadminctl -addUser` still exits with exit code 0 when there's an error
diff --git a/modules/users/user.nix b/modules/users/user.nix
index 72ae07b8..9689e052 100644
--- a/modules/users/user.nix
+++ b/modules/users/user.nix
@@ -58,11 +58,9 @@
       description = ''
         The user's home directory. This defaults to `null`.
 
-        When this is set to `null`, the value is managed by macOS instead of
-        `nix-darwin`. This means if the user has not been created yet,
-        `sysadminctl` will be called without the `-home` flag which means the
-        user will have a default home directory of `/Users/<name>` which will
-        be created by `sysadminctl`.
+        When this is set to `null`, if the user has not been created yet,
+        they will be created with the home directory `/var/empty` to match
+        the old default.
       '';
     };
 
diff --git a/tests/users-groups.nix b/tests/users-groups.nix
index 34ee5c24..81261057 100644
--- a/tests/users-groups.nix
+++ b/tests/users-groups.nix
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
     grep "sysadminctl -addUser ${lib.escapeShellArgs [ "foo" "-UID" 42000 "-GID" 42000 "-fullName" "Foo user" "-home" "/Users/foo" "-shell" "/run/current-system/sw/bin/bash" ]}" ${config.out}/activate
     grep "createhomedir -cu ${lib.escapeShellArg "foo"}" ${config.out}/activate
     grep "sysadminctl -addUser ${lib.escapeShellArgs [ "created.user" "-UID" 42001 ]} .* ${lib.escapeShellArgs [ "-shell" "/usr/bin/false" ] }" ${config.out}/activate
-    (! grep "sysadminctl -addUser ${lib.escapeShellArg "created.user"} .* -home" ${config.out}/activate)
+    grep "sysadminctl -addUser ${lib.escapeShellArg "created.user"} .* ${lib.escapeShellArgs [ "-home" "/var/empty" ]}" ${config.out}/activate
     (! grep "dscl . -delete ${lib.escapeShellArg "/Users/created.user"}" ${config.out}/activate)
     (! grep "dscl . -delete ${lib.escapeShellArg "/Groups/created.user"}" ${config.out}/activate)