Institutional buyers are flooding single-family market

Dropped record $77B on homes in past 6 months, according to Redfin

UPDATED, May 24 2021, 12:00 p.m.

Excerpt:

Institutional buyers are in spending mode.

Investors dropped a record $77 billion on homes in the past six months, according to Business Insider, citing a Redfin report. That compares to the $55 billion spent on homes in the second and third quarters of 2020, when buying dropped as Covid cases surged and cities imposed restrictions.

Overall, the number of homes acquired by investors jumped 2.7% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

The massive purchases have added to the nationwide housing crunch amid what has been a red-hot market.

Investors are most focused on single-family homes, which made up the biggest share of acquisitions and first-quarter growth, year over year. Nearly 39,000 of the 55,000 homes investors bought in Q1 were single-family properties, up 4.8% from last year.