Investor Activity Remains Strong Despite Market Slowdown, but That Could Soon Change, Experts Say

For years, single-family investors have swooped into popular regional markets to flip for-sale units into rental properties, much to the chagrin of local buyers who have struggled to put up a fair fight, but according to Bill McBride in the CalculatedRisk Newsletter, that trend seems to be changing. The number of single-family homes purchased by non-investors posted double-digit yearly declines in the last three quarters, and that drop in demand may cause investor purchases to slow as well.

In the meantime, however, investor purchases are posting strong gains. The share of homes purchased by investors increased to a record high 27.6% in the first quarter of 2022, up from 24.8% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 19.2% from the first quarter of 2021.

Lately we’ve seen some anecdotal evidence that investors are reducing purchases. For example, in their June survey, Rick Palacios Jr., Director of Research at John Burns Real Estate Consulting noted homebuilders saying, “investor sales have stalled”.

However, as recently as Q1, investors were still very active according to CoreLogic: Single-Family Investor Activity Bounces Back in the First Quarter of 2022.

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