Bay Area ranks 16th in the U.S. in share of investor bought homes

One in five homes bought by investors in the first quarter, a 22 percent drop from a year ago

San Fransisco home
(iStock)

Investor purchases of homes across the Bay Area remains high but has fallen more than 20 percent since early last year.

While real estate investors bought one in five homes in the Bay Area in the first quarter, their share dropped 21.7 percent from the same period last year, according to the San Francisco Business Times, citing a national analysis by Redfin.

In a ranking of hot investor housing markets among the nation’s 40 largest metropolitan areas, the San Francisco Bay Area ranked 16th according to market share,

The first-quarter value of homes bought by investors totaled $1.58 billion in San Francisco, eclipsing San Jose’s total of $1.035 billion and Sacramento’s total of $1.017 billion.

Los Angeles led all cities in the state — and the nation — with the value of homes bought by investors in the first quarter totaling $6.3 billion.

Across the nation, real estate investors bought 77,829 homes in the metros tracked by Redfin in the first quarter, down 11.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2021 and 16.5 percent from the third quarter of 2021, when investor purchases hit a record high.

At the same time, investor purchases made up a larger share of the housing market owing to a decrease in home purchases nationally.

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Investors bought 20 percent of homes across the U.S. in the first three months of the year, mirroring the Bay Area market. That is a record for the sector nationally, up from 19.2 percent in the fourth quarter and 15.3 percent a year ago.

Redfin looked at 40 large metro areas for its analysis, applying the term “investor” to any purchasing entity containing LLC, Inc., Trust, Corp. or Homes in its name. The data doesn’t include notable metro areas, such as major Texas cities, because of sales-price nondisclosures in certain counties.

The No. 1 investor market was Atlanta, with a 33.1 percent share in the first quarter valued at $2.7 billion, followed by Jacksonville, Fla., at 32.3 percent, and Charlotte, N.C., at 32.2 percent, according to Redfin.

Among individual cities in California, San Diego ranked at No. 13, with a first-quarter share of investor homes at 21.1 percent, with Anaheim No. 15 at 10.6 percent, Los Angeles No. 17 at 19.8 percent, Sacramento No. 19 at 18.8 percent, and Riverside No. 21 at 17.2 percent.

[San Francisco Business Times] – Dana Bartholomew

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