Home flipping plunged 12.9% in the third quarter of this year, following an unusually active spring, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ latest U.S. Home Flipping Report. In the third quarter, 56,566 single-family homes and condos were flipped, down 6.8% from a year ago. This marks the largest quarterly and annual drops in home flipping activity since the third quarter of 2014.
“After a springtime selling binge earlier this year, the home flipping business settled way down over the summer amid a continuing scenario of languishing profits,” says Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions. “The retreat back to more normal levels of sales comes amid broader market forces that are making it harder and harder for investors to complete the kind of deals they were getting as recently as last year. Those forces are keeping profits way down from postrecession highs and show no signs of easing.”