Real estate investors cut purchases by 45 from last year

The decline in owner-occupied equity purchases exceeded the 31% decline in total home sales. Investors' market share fell to 16% after reaching an all-time high of 20% in the first quarter of 2022.

Investors also make up a smaller share of new investor-owned offerings, with 8% of new investor-owned listings, down from a peak of 13% at the end of 2021. Investors are targeting affordable and single-family homes, although investor purchases of single-family homes are down year-over-year due to limited supply.

The market share and number of investor purchases declined significantly in Phoenix, Las Vegas and other Sun Belt cities that''experienced a boom during the pandemic and have a lot of downside potential.

The Redfin report showed that investor purchases fell 45% from a year earlier in the second quarter, outpacing a 31% decline in overall home sales. That's the biggest drop since 2008 except for the quarter before that, when they fell 48%.

The decline comes amid a relatively quiet real estate and rental housing market this year, making real estate investment less attractive compared to the pandemic housing boom period in 2021 and early 2022.

The data is based on an analysis of county records in the 39 most populated U.S.