Third consecutive quarter where investors account for over 30% of home purchases.
Largest investors sold 20% more properties than they bought in 2025.
Real estate investors purchased over 32% of all single-family residential properties sold in the fourth quarter of 2025, down slightly from the third quarter when they purchased 34%, but the third consecutive quarter where investors purchased more than 30% of all homes sold nationally. Overall, investors purchased 1.32 million homes in 2025, down 4.5% from the 1.39 million homes purchased by investors in 2024, according to the Q4 2025 Investor Pulse Report from BatchData. The largest investors – those owning 1,000 or more homes – continued to shed properties, selling 5,970 properties in the fourth quarter while buying only 4,336. This marked the eighth consecutive quarter where the largest investors were net sellers. For the year, these large investors sold 20% more homes than they purchased. In total, investors own roughly 18% of the 86 million single-family residential homes in the country.
The Investor Pulse Report is a quarterly publication providing strategic market intelligence on investor activity in U.S. single-family residential housing. The report analyzes ownership patterns, transaction trends, pricing strategies, and geographic distribution to deliver actionable insights for real estate professionals, policymakers, and market participants. The report is prepared using data provided by BatchData and other sources by business intelligence firm CJ Patrick Company.
“While investors continue to represent a high percentage of home purchases, the number of properties they’re buying has actually decreased significantly” said BatchData president Ivo Draginov. “Investors bought about 292,000 homes in the fourth quarter of 2025 – down 19% from the third quarter, and down 15% from the fourth quarter of 2024. So once again, the high percentage of homes being purchased by investors is largely due to fewer home purchases by traditional homeowners rather than by overly aggressive investor activity.”
Smallest Investors Continue to Dominate Market Activity
Small investors who owned between one and five properties held almost 92% of the single-family homes owned by investors, and those owning six to 10 properties just under 4%. So the real estate investment market is not controlled by large institutional investors. In fact, the largest investors – those owning 1,000 or more properties – account for just 2% of all investor-owned homes, and appear to be shrinking their ownership positions. Q4 2025 was the eighth consecutive quarter where the largest investors sold more properties. Collectively, investors purchased over 1.32 million homes in 2025, while selling about 368,000. But the largest investors were net sellers, purchasing 20,856 homes while selling 25,861.
Source: BatchData Q4 2025 Investor Pulse™ Note: Total exceeds 100% since some investors share ownership in properties across tiers
Five States with Strong Tourism Have the Highest Percentage of Investor-Owned Homes
As was the case in the third quarter of 2025, Wyoming, Maine, Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii – have the highest percentage of investor-owned single-family homes. Wyoming has the highest percentage of investment properties at 30.66%, followed by Maine at 29.88%, Montana at 26.63%, Alaska at 26.61%, and Hawaii at 25.84%.
Five other states – Texas, California, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia – account for roughly one third of the nation’s total inventory of investor-owned properties. Texas investors hold over 1.4 million homes; California investors own just under 1.3 million; there are just over one million investor properties in Florida; almost 790,000 in North Carolina; and slightly more than 630,000 in Georgia. These states all have high populations, making them logical targets for investor rental property ownership.
Investor Ownership Skewed Heavily Towards Metros in the Southeast
Investors own at least 18% of the single-family homes in 44 of the 100 largest metros in the United States, with a strong concentration in the Southeast, where six of the 10 markets with the highest percentage of investor-owned homes are located.
North Carolina boasts two of the five metro markets with the highest percentage of investor-owned homes: Asheville is the metro with the country’s highest percentage at almost 28%, and Fayetteville at almost 25%. Other metros with high percentages of investor-owned properties include Lubbock, TX (27.49%); Charleston, WV (24.54%); Portland, ME (23.69%); and Myrtle Beach, SC (22.60%).
Larger investors – those owning 100 or more properties – have an even higher concentration of homes in the Southeast, with seven of the top 10 metros and 11 of the top 20 located in that region. Both Florida and North Carolina have three metros in the top 20 – Jacksonville, Orlando, and Bradenton, FL; and Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro, NC.
Atlanta edged out Jacksonville as the metro with the highest percentage of homes owned by large investors at 3.77% to 3.50%. These two metros were followed by Charlotte (2.79%); Phoenix (2.50%); Memphis (2.41%); and Las Vegas (2.31%).
About BatchData
Founded in 2018, BatchData is a leading provider of property data and predictive intelligence for the real estate ecosystem. Built by industry experts, BatchData has established one of the deepest and most accurate data lakes in the property technology sector, delivering instant access to over 155 million U.S. property records. The platform empowers businesses – ranging from proptech startups to enterprise institutions – with robust APIs, bulk data solutions, and AI-powered insights. By transforming complex public records into actionable intelligence, BatchData fuels decision-making for investors, lender, and home service providers nationwide. For more information, visit www.BatchData.com.
About CJ Patrick Company
Founded in 2019, CJ Patrick Company is a Market Intelligence and Business Advisory firm working with companies in the real estate and mortgage industries. Visit www.cjpatrick.com for more information.
About the Investor Pulse™ Report
The Investor Pulse Report is a quarterly publication providing strategic market intelligence on investor activity in U.S. single-family residential housing. The report analyzes ownership patterns, transaction trends, pricing strategies, and geographic distribution to deliver actionable insights for real estate professionals, policymakers, and market participants. The report is prepared using data provided by BatchData and other public record data sources by business intelligence firm CJ Patrick Company. More detailed methodology available upon request
Contact:
Rick Sharga
CJ Patrick Company
(949) 322-4583
