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Texas

Investors bought up more than half of all Fort Worth homes sold last year

They pay cash and buy ‘as is’ — a home seller’s dream

A photo illustration depicting the high demand among investors in the Fort Worth area (iStock)
A photo illustration depicting the high demand among investors for homes in the Fort Worth area (iStock)

More than half of Tarrant County homes sold last year were picked up by an investor, either individual or corporate.

Home to Fort Worth and Arlington, Tarrant County had the highest share of homes purchased by investors in Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News. Nationwide, the county ranked third.

Investor entities made up 52 percent of Tarrant County homebuyers last year and neighboring counties were not far behind.

In Rockwall County, 45 percent of homes sold last year were purchased by investors. In Dallas County, 43 percent of homes went to investors, and 39 percent in Denton County. Overall 28 percent of all Texas homebuyers were investment vehicles.

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These investors have one big advantage, says Shannon Ashkinos, president of the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors — they pay cash.

“Traditional homebuyers just can’t compete,” Ashkinos told DMN. “We’ve seen this over and over again. Anyone trying for a traditional loan is stuck, in a way.”

Investor darlings like Tarrant County typically share a few key characteristics: substantial population growth, a large share of rental properties, high density of minority populations and millennials, and rising home prices and rents.

The latter rings particularly true in North Texas. The median sale price of a home in the Dallas-Fort Worth area reached $400,000 in April, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. While that may seem relatively cheap compared to San Francisco or New York, this jump marked a 23 percent hike from last April and an increase of about 51 percent since April 2019.

In addition to paying cash, real estate investors are far less picky than a first-time homebuyer because they’re not the ones who will be living there. Of investor purchases, 42 percent of properties were converted to single-family rentals and 45 percent were flipped and resold.

[DMN] — Maddy Sperling

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