Investors Still Snapping up U.S Homes

RealtyTrac’s September 2013 U.S. Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report, which includes single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes, found homes sales up 2 percent from August and 14 percent compared to September 2012. It also found a preponderance of purchases by investors and all-cash sales.

The national median sales price of all residential properties — including both distressed and non-distressed — in September was $174,000, up 1 percent from a revised $172,000 median price in August and up 6 percent from a $164,500 median price year-to-year. Distressed sales combined accounted for 25 percent of all sales in September, up from 18 percent of all sales a year ago.

“The housing market continues to skew in favor of investors, particularly deep-pocketed institutional investors, and other buyers paying with cash,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

However, investors appear to be pulling back from higher-priced markets and focusing their money on cities where they see more opportunity, such as Jacksonville. Places like San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York, Seattle and Sacramento are falling out of favor, according to RealtyTrac. Investors are focusing on markets with median prices still below $200,000 – places like Jacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, St. Louis and Dallas.

“Distressed sales remain persistently high, particularly short sales,” Blomquist says. “Markets with the biggest increases in short sales tend to be those where either foreclosure starts or scheduled foreclosure auctions have rebounded in the last 18 months – translating into more motivated short sellers – or those with a still-high percentage of underwater homeowners with negative equity.”

Read more at Florida Realtors®