Rising home prices and shrinking inventories have not dampened the spirits of investors as they plan to continue property investments over the next 12 months.
It's estimated that about 65 percent of active real estate investors plan to continue buying properties just as they did last year, according to a survey BiggerPockets.com/Memphis Invest national survey.
"Though housing markets are changing across the nation, investors are still seeing great opportunities. Hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and short sales are coming to market and rents are continuing to improve in most markets, creating a positive environment for the nation's 28.1 million residential real estate investors," Joshua Dorkin, founder and CEO of BiggerPockets.com, said in a statement. "They will certainly continue to be major players in the nation's housing economy for the foreseeable future.
"We're talking about a group of Americans that is about the same in number as the number of Americans who own Roth IRAs (28.5 million) or the total number of money market fund shareholders (29 million)."
According to a National Association of Realtor data quoted in the report, last year, investors purchased 1.23 million homes. This is a 64.5 percent increase (749,000 homes in 2010).
Investors and Housing Repair
The survey also found that investors spend much close to $9.2 billion a year to repair neighborhood housing. This is more than four times the amount spent by the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program to repair the nation’s housing stock.
"This survey puts some hard numbers behind the contribution that investors are making towards not only improving neighborhoods and fighting blight, but also towards driving the economy,” Chris Clothier, a partner with Memphis Invest, said in a statement. “Investors are purchasing homes that in some cases sit for months and add a drag on local home prices. This survey shows that those investors are driving their local economies by spending billions in repair costs with local electricians, plumbers, flooring companies and laborers just to name a few. Those dollars provide jobs and put money into local economies with local companies. It's clear that investors are the ones who have risking their own money to improve and stabilize neighborhoods for new owners or tenants."
