The Difference of a Decade: Rising Purchases amid swings in market share
Investor Share Continued to Fall in 2020
In 2020, the investment rate (the unit volume share of all home
purchases made by investors) in the U.S. housing market was 15.5%.
This was a slowdown from 16.3% in 2019. Investor activity peaked in
2018 at just below 16.4%; however, the rate in 2016 was 15.3%. Thus,
the current 15.5% rate is not unusually low.
In particular, the 2020 investment rate is comparable to the 2012 rate
of 15.7%, when low prices and the foreclosure crisis, following the 2006
housing market crash, made the market attractive to investors. Overall,
investors have maintained a strong presence in the market over the
decade, mostly oscillating within a narrow corridor of 15% to 17% of
total purchases for the decade.
While the investor share of purchases has swung higher and lower over
the decade, the number of investor purchases has gradually risen.
Since 2017, investors purchased about 1.1 million homes each year, but
the share this made up of total home purchases varied.
Investor Share of Purchases
16.4%
16.2%
16.0%
15.8%
15.6%
15.4%
15.2%
15.0%
14.8%
CoreLogic
14.6%
2012
U.S Investor Homebuying Rates: 2011-2020
2014
Investor Share of Purchases
1100
1050
1000
950
900
850
800
750
700
2016
2018
2020
Investor Purchases
Investor Purchases (Thousands)View entire presentation