In Q2 2025, investors bought 33% of single-family homes, a five-year high. This is partly due to weak overall sales. Small "mom-and-pop" investors (1-5 properties) dominate the market, owning 87% of investor-held homes. The largest institutional investors own just 2% and have been net sellers for six straight quarters. Investors focus on lower-priced homes, paying an average of $455,481.

Phoenix, AZ September 29, 2025 --(PR.com)-- Housing Affordability Crisis Pushes Investor Home Purchases to 33%—but Data Reveals Surprising Truths About Who's Really Buying.

Mom-and-Pop Landlords, Not Wall Street, Dominate Record Market Share.

Large Institutional Investors Exit for Sixth Straight Quarter While Small Investors Fill Critical Liquidity Gap.

Real estate investors captured a record 33% of all U.S. home purchases in Q2 2025, but the surge tells a dramatically different story than commonly assumed, according to the Q2 2025 Investor Pulse™ Report from BatchData. Rather than institutional investors flooding the market, the data reveals small "mom-and-pop" landlords stepping in to provide critical market liquidity as mortgage rates averaging 6.7% pushed traditional homebuyers to the sidelines.

"The headline number is striking, but the real story is why investor shares hit record levels," said BatchData Co-Founder and President Ivo Draginov. "This isn't about investors outcompeting families, it's about investors becoming the only buyers left standing when mortgage rates effectively doubled monthly payments and priced out more than half of middle-income households."

Wall Street's Retreat Creates Opening for Small Investors
Contradicting the narrative of institutional dominance, mega-investors with 1,000+ properties control just 2% of all investor-owned homes and have been net sellers for six consecutive quarters. In Q2 2025, these large investors sold 5,801 properties while purchasing only 4,069—a strategic retreat that has seen institutional acquisitions plummet from $46.5 billion annually in 2024 to just $11.2 billion in Q1 2025.

Meanwhile, small investors owning 1-5 properties hold 87% of investor-owned homes, with those owning up to 50 properties controlling 95% of total investor inventory. Individual investors own 41% of all U.S. single-family rental units with an average of just three properties each.

"The data completely flips the script on who's really active in this market," Draginov noted. "While institutions strategically pivot to build-to-rent developments, entrepreneurial investors are providing essential market stability and renovating distressed properties that families typically avoid."

Investors Target Different Market Segment Than Traditional Buyers
The report reveals limited direct competition between investors and traditional homebuyers. Investors paid an average of $455,481 per home in Q2, well below the $512,800 national average, targeting older, smaller homes requiring renovation rather than the move-in-ready properties most families seek. Large investors operate at even lower price points, averaging just $279,899 per purchase.

Replenishing Owner-Occupied Housing Stock
Despite concerns about investors removing homes from the market, 60% of investor sales in Q2 went to traditional homebuyers, effectively returning inventory to owner-occupied status. Even mega-investors sell approximately 40% of their properties directly to families.

"Investors sold over 104,000 homes last quarter, with the majority going to traditional homebuyers," said Draginov. "They're not just providing liquidity to a weak sales market—they're also bringing renovated inventory back to families who want to own."

Geographic Patterns Reveal Strategic Deployment
Investor ownership varies dramatically by state, ranging from just 9% in Minnesota to 31% in both Maine and Montana. High-investor states reflect strategic targeting of tourism markets (Hawaii at 26%, Alaska at 27%), affordability plays (Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia), and migration destinations (Idaho, Vermont, Wyoming).

First-Time Buyers Hit Historic Low
The broader context reveals the severity of the affordability crisis: first-time buyer participation collapsed to just 24% in Q2—the lowest level on record and an eight-percentage-point drop from 2023. Nearly 60% of U.S. households cannot afford a $300,000 home under current conditions, with six-figure incomes now required in over half of all markets.

About BatchData
Founded in 2018, BatchData is a comprehensive real estate data platform providing enterprise-grade APIs with access to 1,000+ data points for over 150 million U.S. properties. Unlike static data aggregators, BatchData's in-house data science team enriches datasets from multiple tier-one providers while leveraging real-time feedback from over 20,000 users to maintain industry-leading data quality. For more information, visit www.BatchData.com.

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, analyzing ownership patterns, transaction trends, pricing strategies, and geographic distribution.

Contact Information:
BatchData
Ivo Draginov
602-622-0397
Contact via Email
www.batchdata.io

Read the full story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/949402

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