Curious what real estate investors across the US have been up to lately? A new report offers some eye-opening answers.
The Realtor.com Real Estate Investor Report found that investors represented 13% of buyers and 10.8% of sellers last year. All told, they purchased 610,000 homes in 2024 (up slightly from 608,000 in 2023) and sold 509,000.
Do the math, and you’ll see that investors acquired about 101,000 more homes than they put on the market. That’s the slimmest spread seen since 2020, and less than half the net gains made during their pandemic-fueled homebuying peak of 2022, when investors snapped up 260,000 more homes than they decided to dump.
“The market saw the smallest net investor buying activity in five years,” explains Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale.
In other words: Even though everyone knows that hordes of homebuyers have been struggling with high mortgage rates, steep home prices, and other challenges, investors are also slowing down to take a breath and assess whether expanding their portfolio is a good idea.
Top markets for investors
To offset higher housing costs, investors are heading where the bargains are: Nine of the top 10 markets for investor buyers boasted median purchase prices below $300,000; five were even under $200,000. That sounds downright heavenly compared to the nationwide median of $440,000.
“These price trends underscore the trend of stronger investor activity in more affordable markets,” explains Realtor.com economist Hannah Jones.
So, where are these deals? Investors represented the highest share of 2024 buyers in the following states:
- Missouri: 21.2%
- Oklahoma: 18.7%
- Kansas: 18.4%
- Utah: 18.0%
- Georgia: 17.3%
- Montana: 17.2%
- Mississippi: 16.7%
- Wyoming: 16.3%
- Indiana: 16.1%
- Alabama: 15.9%
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“These states are generally affordable but have seen rental prices hold up better than national rents, creating an opportunity for investors,” Jones said. “In fact, Kansas City, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri border, saw the highest rental price growth in the country in April 2025, but it remains affordable relative to local incomes.”
Where are investors selling the most homes?
Although investors picked up a few more homes last year, they were far more eager to pawn them off: Investor sales hit a record high, representing 10.8% of all sales, up from 10.1% in 2023.
Investor sales were most prevalent in Oklahoma (16.7%), Missouri (16.7%), Georgia (15.9%), Nevada (14.3%), and Utah (14.3%). Interestingly, “The list of top states for investor sellers looks similar to the top locations for investor purchases, indicating that investor activity is heavily concentrated in certain markets,” observes Jones.
Last but not least, the report contained one more record-high worth celebrating: Smaller investors who own fewer than 10 properties made up 59.2% of purchases in 2024, while large investors fell to just 21.7% of purchases, the lowest share since 2007. Props to all the little guys for gaining ground against big players!