Home flipping activity is increasing across the country, as more investors look to capitalize on the run-up in home prices. Nearly 50,000 single-family homes and condos were flipped in the first quarter of this year, comprising 6.9 percent of all home sales, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’
Q1 2018 U.S. Home Flipping Report. That matches the highest home flipping rate since the first quarter of 2012.
Flips in the first quarter of this year sold at an average gross profit of $69,500, up from $66,287 a year ago. In fact, it is the highest average gross profit for flips since ATTOM began tracking such data in 2000. ATTOM researchers define a flip as a property that has been sold more than once in a 12-month period.
“The 2018 housing market is a double-edged sword for home flippers,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “Rapidly rising home prices boosted by low inventory of homes for sale or for rent are padding profits at the back end when flippers sell. But those same market realities are eroding flipping returns at the front end by forcing flippers to pay more to acquire homes to flip.”
Of 136 metros with at least 50 home flips tracked by ATTOM researchers, the highest home flipping rates in the first quarter were in Memphis, Tenn. (15.1 percent); Albany, Ore. (11.7 percent); East Stroudsburg, Pa. (11.4 percent); York, Pa. (10.4 percent); and Merced, Calif. (10.3 percent).
Source: ATTOM Data Solutions
