- Lily Katz
REDFIN: INVESTORS ARE BUYING ROUGHLY HALF AS MANY HOMES AS THEY WERE A YEAR AGO
Investor home purchases fell a record 46% year over year in the fourth quarter.
Investors bought 18% of homes that sold, down from 19% a year earlier.
Pandemic boomtowns Las Vegas and Phoenix saw investor purchases fall over 60%—more than all of the other metros Redfin analyzed.
Investors pulled back from single-family homes more than condos and townhomes, and high-priced properties more than low-priced properties.
Investor purchases of U.S. homes fell a record 45.8% year over year in the fourth quarter as the high cost of borrowing money and the prospect of substantial home-price declines made real estate investing less attractive. The second biggest decline occurred in 2008, when investor purchases slumped 45.1% during the subprime mortgage crisis.
Overall U.S. home purchases fell 40.8% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter.