The real estate investor share of home purchases fell 22% year over year in the second quarter of this year, according to a new report from CJ Patrick Co. and BatchData.
Investors purchased a little more than 284,000 homes in the second quarter, up from a total of 277,000 purchased in the first quarter of this year but down 82,000 homes from the second quarter of 2025. Investor purchases accounted for almost 27% of all home sales in the quarter, dropping below 30% for the first time in five quarters.
Investors purchasing single-family homes remains a controversial issue in the U.S., with some housing advocates arguing that corporate investment in real estate is driving up the cost of homes and reducing the inventory of starter homes on the market.
The Trump administration has passed legislation which bars entities that own 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing additional properties. The law goes into effect in January 2027. Small “mom-and-pop investors” will still be able to buy homes.
Some economists and housing policy researchers say that high home prices are not tied to investor purchases, but are the result of a chronic shortage of new homes being built. They maintain that large corporate investors who own more than 1,000 homes only control between 2.19% of all investor-owned homes. Investors buying homes to rent helps the housing ecosystem by creating market liquidity for sellers and rental options for families not ready to buy, they say.
The report found that large corporate investors are paring back their homeownership positions. The second quarter of 2026 was the 10th consecutive quarter where the largest investors sold more properties than they purchased. In the second quarter, large investors bought 5,400 homes and sold 7,200.
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It also found that the real estate investment market is dominated by small investors. Those who own between one and five homes account for 92% of the single-family homes owned by investors.
“While investor home purchases increased during the second quarter, they didn’t keep pace with the much larger increase in overall home sales during April, May and June,” said BatchData President Ivo Draginov in a press release. “Existing home sales increased by over 323,000 transactions during Q2, but the overwhelming majority of these purchases were made by traditional homebuyers. Investor purchases only rose by about 6,700 transactions during the quarter.”
According to the report, there are more than 86 million single-family homes and townhouses in the U.S. Of these, about 16 million, or about 18%, are investment properties owned by either individuals or corporate entities.
The states with the highest percentage of investor-owned single-family homes include Maine, where 30.9% of homes are investor properties; Wyoming (30.6%); Alaska (26.7%); Montana (26.6%); and Hawaii (25.6%).
The metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of investor-owned homes include Atlanta and Jacksonville, Fla., where 4% of homes are owned by investors, and Charlotte, N.C., where 3% of homes are investor-owned. BatchData found that more than 10 other major metropolitan areas have 2% of the homes owned by investors.
