Real estate investors comprised the highest share of local purchase activity in a concentrated band of affordable Midwest and Sun Belt cities last year, underscoring their elevated presence in markets that appear most accessible — on paper — to traditional homebuyers.
Amid persistent affordability pressures induced by high home prices and elevated borrowing costs relative to the past decade, investor purchases of single-family homes have made up 3 in 10 home sales for almost two years, according to Cotality data.
Though investor purchases by volume have receded from pandemic-era highs, they nevertheless exceeded 100,000 for multiple months in 2025 as the sector maintained an elevated share of overall homebuying activity.
Marc Halpert, CEO o...