Real estate investors bought more than 34% of all single-family homes sold in the third quarter of 2025, the highest share in five years, according to BatchData’s Q3 2025 Investor Pulse Report.
The report, produced in partnership with business intelligence firm CJ Patrick Co., examines homeownership patterns and transaction trends to inform real estate professionals and policymakers.
The investor share of home purchases rose from 33% in Q3 2025 and was up more than 8 percentage points from a year earlier. As a result, investors now own about 18% of the nation’s 86 million single-family homes, the report found.
“Two seemingly incongruous trends continue to show themselves,” said Ivo Draginov, BatchData’s co-founder and president. “While the percentage of homes purchased by investors rose to a five-year high, the actual number of homes purchased was 23,000 fewer than a year ago. This suggests the higher percentage is due to traditional homeowners retreating from the market rather than overly aggressive investor activity.”
Small-scale investors continue to dominate the market, the company found. Owners of one to five properties control nearly 92% of all investor-owned single-family homes, while those owning six to 10 properties hold about 4%. Institutional investors with portfolios of 1,000 or more homes, meanwhile, only account for 2% of the market.
The third quarter marked the seventh straight quarter in which institutional investors sold more homes (5,798) than they bought (4,663).
Investor ownership is concentrated in a handful of states. Texas, California, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia together account for about one-third of all investor-owned single-family homes nationwide. Texas leads with about 1.4 million homes, followed by California with 1.2 million and Florida with 1 million.
Several states exceed the 18% national average for investor ownership, including North Carolina at 25%, Georgia at 19% and Texas at 18.2%. Tourist-driven markets also show elevated investor presence, led by Wyoming at 30.9%, Maine at 29.8% and Montana at 26.8%.
Investors own at least 18% of single-family homes in 48 of the nation’s 100 largest markets. The Southeast continues to attract the most investor activity, accounting for six of the top 10 metros.
Asheville, North Carolina, had the highest concentration at 30%, followed by Las Vegas and Memphis, each at 26%. Institutional investors were most active in Jacksonville, Florida, and Atlanta, where they accounted for about 2.7% and 2.6% of ownership, respectively.