In the first quarter, investor deals made up 19 percent of residential real estate purchases across the country — 2 percent more than the same time last year.
About 47,000 homes, or nearly 1 in 5, were bought by investors in the first quarter, according to data from brokerage and data firm Redfin.
This marks an improvement from the fourth quarter of 2024, when the investor share of home acquisitions had fallen 3.9 percent year over year. It was the lowest fourth-quarter level since 2016.
The market that saw the greatest share of its purchases tied to investors was Miami. Investor buys made up 30 percent of deals in that city, or 1,641 purchases. However, these purchases, while up 18 percent from the end of 2024, are down 19 percent from last year. That’s the greatest yearly drop among the markets Redfin tracks.
The investor shares of home deals in two other Floridian cities — Orlando and Fort Lauderdale — were also down, by 13 percent and 12 percent, respectively, putting them in the top 5 of metros with annual declines in investor shares. Investors’ home buys in these three Floridian cities have been falling on a yearly basis every quarter since 2022, according to Redfin.
Anaheim, California and Cleveland, Ohio, tied for second place, as investor purchases comprised 27 percent of sales in each city. In Anaheim, deals went up 19 percent year over year; they rose 1 percent in Cleveland.
The metropolitan area that saw the greatest annual increase in sales was Seattle, where investor deals spiked 47 percent. Portland was second, at 28 percent.
New York City came in at the middle of the pack in terms of the share of investors purchasing property there (20 percent), and its yearly increase. The number of investor deals climbed 5 percent there year over year, though they fell 3 percent from the quarter before.
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