Real estate investors are rising at prices and Stubborn high lending fees Freeze many other possible home buyers.
Nearly 27% of all homes sold in the first three months of the year are the highest share purchased in at least five years, according to a report by real estate data provider Batchdata.
Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes purchased by investors was 18.5%.
All in all, investors bought 265,000 homes in the January-March quarter, an increase of 1.2% from the same period last year, the company said.
Despite the increase in the year, the increase in investor’s share of home purchases reflects the slowdown in the housing market as traditional buyers face growth in affordability constraints, Batchdata said.
The U.S. housing market has been in a state of sales downturn since early 2022, when mortgage rates began to rise from pandemic-era lows. Home sales fell to their lowest level last year In the past 30 years.
They’re still stagnant So far this year, as many potential home buyers have been denied Mortgage interest rates rise and rising housing prices, albeit slower.
As home sales slow down, it takes longer for properties to sell. This leads to a higher list of homes on the market, benefiting investors and other shoppers who can bypass current mortgage rates by either cash or attacking home equity gains.
“As traditional buyers struggle with affordability, investors with cash and financing advantages are stepping in to maintain trading volumes,” the report said.
Batchdata analyzes U.S. home sales records to determine which properties investors have purchased. These may include vacation homes or rents, but do not include the main residence of the homebuyer.
According to Batchdata, investors bought 1.2 million homes in 2024, returning from an average of 1.1 million households a year to 2020.
Even so, investors own about 20% of the country’s 86 million single-family homes, the company said.
Among them, moms and popular investors or those who own 1 to 5 homes account for 85% of all residential properties owned by investors, while residential properties owned by 6 to 10 properties account for 5%.
The company said institutional investors who own 1,000 or more homes make up only 2.2% of all homes owned by investors.
This number may get smaller, suggesting that large institutional investors are scaling up home purchases.
Among the eight largest companies that own and rent single-family homes, including invitation houses and U.S. 4 rent, more homes were sold in the second quarter than they bought six homes, according to Parci Labs.
