Survey Finds Most Investors Will Increase or Maintain Activity

Foreclosure inventory is shrinking. Prices are rising. But, despite these changes in the investor landscape, it will be business as usual for real estate investors, according to a survey jointly released by ""BiggerPockets.com"":http://www.biggerpockets.com/ and ""Memphis Invest"":http://www.memphisinvest.com/.

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The survey found that 65 percent of active real estate investors plan to buy as many or more residential properties in the next 12 months as they did in the past. The percentage translates to 4.5 million investors.

Also, 39 percent of active investors plan to purchase more properties over the next 12 months.

According to the survey, 7 million, or 3 percent, American adults consider themselves to be real estate investors. Another 9 percent of Americans currently own investment property, but don't have plans to buy more. When counting those who either consider themselves to be residential real estate investors or residential investment owners, the total is 28.1 million Americans.

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Based on survey findings, most investors actually don't pay all cash, with the survey revealing 46 percent use financing, and put 20 to 50 percent down. Only 7 percent put down more than 50 percent.

The median expenditure for investors is $7,500 per property, with some 20 percent planning to spend $10,000 to $30,000 on their next property,

Among the 7 million active investors, about half make more than five purchases a year. Most active investors are under 55 years old (76 percent), and 34 percent of active investors make more than $75,000 a year. More than a third (37 percent) said they have a high school degree or less.

Among the investor incentives, lower interest rates ranked highest (70 percent).

On Thursday, Freddie Mac actually reported ""interest rates hit another record low"":http://dsnews.comarticles/fixed-mortgage-rates-find-new-lows-in-wake-of-qe3-announcement-2012-09-20 following the Fed's announcements for a third round of quantitative easing.

Following lower mortgage rates as the most popular investor incentive, tax incentives for purchase, rehab, and renovation (54 percent) ranked next, and third was elimination of limits on financing (46 percent).

Thirty-six percent of investors in the survey said they would be willing to put down up to 25 percent on a loan in order to borrow without limits.

ORC International conducted the survey and reached out to 3,036 aduts using both landline and mobile telephones throughout August. Among those surveyed, 1,515 were men and 1,521 were women.

Memphis Invest offers single-family rental real estate investment services, and BiggerPockets is a real estate investing social network.