Investors constitute the largest share of buyers in 5 years

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Real estate investors, individual and institutional, bought a third of all single -family residential properties sold in the second quarter of 2025. It is an increase of 27% in the first quarter, and the highest percentage in the past five years, according to a CJ Patrick Co. report, using Batchdata figures, a supplier of real estate data. Investors represented 25.7% of sales of residential houses in 2024.

Although the share of sales is higher, the raw figures are lower. This year’s second quarter investors bought 16,000 less houses than a year ago, but house sales were much lower this year than last year. This explains the gain in the part of investors. Investors continue to hold around 20% of the country’s 86 million unifamilial houses.

“While investors bought more houses than they sold in the second quarter, they sold more than 104,000 houses, 45% of these sales to traditional buyers,” said Ivo Draginov, co-founder and innovation chief at Batchdata. “Thus, in addition to the important role, investors continue to play to provide liquidity necessary for a sales market of weak houses, they also provide essential stocks – both rental properties and houses for owners -occupants – on the market.”

While major institutional investors continue to make most of the titles in the unifamilial rental space, small investors represent more than 90% of the market. These are individuals with 10 properties or less. The most important investors, those who have 1,000 or more properties represent only 2% of all houses belonging to investors.

Unlike individuals, institutional investors now sell more houses than they buy and have been for six consecutive quarters. The largest owners in the country, Invitation houses, Residential progress, American houses 4 rent And FirstKey Homes, all sold more houses in the third quarter of this year than what they bought, according to an analysis by Parcl Labs.

“They do not come out of space, entertaining only capital in construction communities. But this change means less competition for small investors and buyers of traditional houses, while adding more rental supply, which is necessary on the current market where young adults often opt for rent because they cannot afford to buy a house,” said Rick Sharga, founder and CEO of CJ Patrick Co.

By looking regionally, Texas, California and Florida have the greatest number of houses belonging to investors. This is largely because they are also the most populous states. The states with the highest percentage of houses belonging to investors are Hawaii, Alaska, Montana and Maine. They are also heavy tourist states.

Investors have always focused on low-cost houses, as they can offer the best benefits in resale for years later. In the second quarter of this year, investors paid an average of $ 455,481 per house – well below the national average price of $ 512,800, according to the CJ Patrick report. However, this was the average price of the highest investors in the last six quarters, because the prices of houses continue to climb.

Investor houses are generally smaller or on cheaper housing markets. Large investors bought even cheaper houses than the Global Basin, with their average purchase price at $ 279,889. Their average sale price was $ 334,787. Institutional investors are the most concentrated in the Midwest and the South, where prices are lower than the national average.