Real estate investors purchased some 67,943 homes nationally in the second quarter of 2021—the highest quarterly figure on record, according to Redfin. Q2’s numbers reflect a 15.1 percent increase from the first quarter of the year, and a whopping 106.7 percent increase from Q2 of 2020, when the pandemic took over.
Redfin data shows that investors bought a record $48.5 billion worth of homes, up from $38.9 billion in the prior quarter and $20.9 billion a year earlier.
The typical home purchased by investors cost $439,600—23.7 percent higher than a year earlier.
Investors bought about one of every six homes purchased in Q2. In other words, 15.9 percent of the market share. That’s just shy of last year’s Q1 record of 16.1 percent, before lockdown restrictions and the initial economic downturn all but stopped the market.
Some 74 percent of investor home purchases last quarter were paid for in all cash—the highest level since 2018.