Investors account for over 10% of all home purchases. That number is only continuing to rise. Who are these investors?

Many have speculated that the large institutional conglomerates like Blackstone and Colony Starwood dominate investor purchases. However, a special report on investor home buying by CoreLogic, Don’t Call it a Comeback: Housing Investors Have Been Here for Years, shows this is not the case.

Ralph McLaughlin, author of the report, explains:

“Investor buying activity in the U.S. is at record highs. And our records go back confidently, about 20 years…

What’s going on and why? Well, it turns out, it’s not the big institutional guys that are leading the increase in home buying. It’s actually the smaller guys. It’s those that have bought between one and ten properties over this 20-year period, they’re the ones that are really leading the increase in investor home buying.”

Here is the breakdown of the percentage of purchasers by type of investor over the last six years according to the report:

As the graph shows, the percentage of “Mom & Pop” investors is currently dominating the number of homes purchased by investors, as the percentage of homes purchased by both professional and institutional investors is falling.

Bottom Line

People looking to add real estate to their financial portfolio are responsible for most investment purchases. If you are investing in real estate, let’s chat about building or liquidating your current portfolio of properties.