Tag Archives: Investors

Annual price appreciation regularly topped 10 percent nationwide in 2012 and 2013, fueled in large part by high levels of investor activity and a shortage of homes on offer to interested buyers. As of July, yearly growth was down to 5.6 percent, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Price Indices.

With the Federal Reserve on track to end its monthly bond purchases (currently at a rate of $25 billion and falling), Bove cautions that the loss of one of the tools used to help lift housing out of its post-recession rut could hurt the market, especially as interest rates start to tick back up.

The second quarter of 2014 saw fewer all-cash home sales than the first quarter as institutional investors backed off from the market. In a quarterly report released Tuesday, RealtyTrac reported all-cash transactions made up 37.9 percent of all single-family home and condo sales in April, May, and June, down from the first quarter's three-year high of 42.0 percent but up from 35.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Home flippers reported more gains in 2013 than in any year on record, according to national real estate brokerage Redfin. The average home flipped last year was sold for $90,200 more than it was purchased, and in 11 of the 30 markets Redfin analyzed, flippers received gains of more than $100,000 per house.

Home purchases made with cash are on the decline across the country, according to Zillow, but cash sales still make up a significant portion of the lower-priced home market in many areas. Cash sales declined year-over-year in the first quarter in 102 of the 126 metro areas Zillow observes. Zillow chalked up the decline to waning investor demand and a resurgence of traditional buyers in the market.

According to RealtyTrac's latest Residential and Foreclosure Sales Report for March and Q1 2014, U.S. residential properties sold at an estimated annual pace of roughly 5.2 million homes in March, a .4 percent increase from February, and up 8 percent from the previous year.

Total existing-home sales in March came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.59 million, according to estimates from the National Association of Realtors. March sales fell .2 percent from February’s downwardly revised pace of 4.60 million and hit a nearly two-year low. Compared to March 2013, the sales rate was down 7.5 percent.

A majority of experts surveyed by Zillow and Pulsenomics expect large-scale investors will pull out of the housing market in the next few years—and that hopefully means a smoother field for consumer buyers. “Buyers entering the market in the next few months will not be competing with cash-rich investors like they were last year," said Zillow chief economist Dr. Stan Humphries.

Vectra Field Services, a provider of pre-foreclosure and REO mortgage field services, and Valuation Vision, a company specializing in alternative valuation products and technology solutions, together announced the launch of RepairSmart BPO, a new property valuation report.

RealtyTrac released on Thursday its Year-End and Q4 2013 Home Flipping Report, which shows single-family home flips—in which a home is purchase and sold again within six months—totaled 156,862 last year, up 16 percent from 2012 and 114 percent from 2011.