House-flipping was down 8 percent in the first quarter of 2017. The number of flipped homes is at a two-year low, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, the largest multi-sourced property database in the U.S.
Home flips accounted for 6.7 percent of all single-family homes and condo sales during the first quarter. One-third of the flippers used financing to flip, the highest level of financing since the third quarter of 2008.
“The business of financing for home flippers continued to grow in the first quarter of 2017, even as the home flipping rate plateaued copared to a year ago and average home flipping returns decreased for the second consecutive quarter,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “Home flippers financed an estimated $3.5 billion in purchases for homes flipped during the quarter, up $3.3 billion in the previous quarter and up from $2.4 billion a year ago to the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2007 – a more than nine-year high.”
Markets where the most flips were financed include hot markets such as Seattle, SanDiego, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The highest home flipping rates for the first quarter occurred in Washington, D.C., followed by Nevada, Alabama, Tennessee, Maryland and Missouri.