The share of single-family purchases made by residential property investors in June fell to 23.4%, marking the first retreat in investor activity in two years, according to CoreLogic.

June’s investor share tied the lowest share in two years and represented a drop of over 5 percentage points from the 29.8% share achieved by investors in the first quarter — an all-time high going back to 2010, when CoreLogic first began tracking. Sheer investor activity by count is also down: investors made 80,000 purchases in June 2024, compared with 112,000 in the same month one year prior.

While the share of investor purchases among total purchases still remains well above its pre-pandemic level (when investor share consistently fell within the 15-20% range), it has seen a steep drop since March — a plunge that bears tracking, according to CoreLogic economist Thomas Malone.

“The decline since March is sharp, but it is not clear that it will last,” Malone wrote on CoreLogic’s website. “This drop could just be a seasonal movement that comes from buyers being more active during the summer months.

“Whether the slump persists will be determined by whether buyers remain active this fall when interest rates are anticipated to drop.

Geographically, the largest declines in investor share were seen in states in the Rockies and the Great Plains, like Idaho and Kansas. Malone noted that those areas have historically seen significant seasonal fluctuations in investor activity, supporting the theory that the post-March weakening of investor share is a seasonal trend (because fewer non-investor buyers are active in these areas in fall and winter).

Also notably, while investors generally buy mostly lower-priced homes, their activity in the most affordable price tier remains high compared to levels seen before COVID-19. In June 2024, investors made 29% of home purchases in the low-price tier, per CoreLogic data. Compare that to 2019 through 2020, when the investor share of lower-priced homes was consistently close to or below 25%.

While CoreLogic forecasting anticipates further deterioration in investor share to close 2024 and into 2025, the company said that nonowner-occupied investment in residential properties appears set to stay above pre-pandemic norms for some time.

“There also seems to be little chance of prices falling substantially in the near future, so buyer demand will likely remain low while rental demand will remain high,” Malone said. “In addition to unaffordability giving investors a good reason to stay in the rental market, higher insurance premiums from climate risk will likely give investors an opportunity to move into risky markets.”