Investor Home Purchases Fell a Record 49% Year Over Year in the First Quarter

Real estate investors are backing off of buying homes due to climbing interest rates and falling rents and home values. Their share of purchases fell 48.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to a year prior, while home sales overall were down 40.7 percent. Nevertheless, investors are still responsible for a larger share of home purchases than before the pandemic, and they tend to scoop up more affordable properties, leaving first-time buyers out of the game. In the top 40 metro areas tracked by Redfin, investors bought 41,181in Q1 of 2023, down from 80,128 a year earlier, which wasn’t far from the record high of 95,124 in the third quarter of 2021.
Source: https://www.redfin.com/news/investor-home-purchases-q1-2023/