Investors in Single-Family Homes Plan to Up Their Bets

Roughly 65% of residential real estate investors said they plan to buy as many, or more, properties in the next 12 months as they did in the preceding year, even as prices rise and inventories shrink, according to a new survey from ORC International.

Almost four in 10 active investors said they plan to increase their purchases of residential investment properties, while 26% said they would keep their activity level the same.

ORC found that lower interest rates (cited by 70%), additional tax incentives (54%) and the removal of limits on access to credit (46%) would get these investors to be even more active in the future.

In 2011, according to figures compiled by the National Association of Realtors, investors purchased 1.23 million single-family homes.

"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. They will certainly continue to be major players in the nation's housing economy for the foreseeable future," said Joshua Dorkin, founder and CEO of BiggerPockets.com.

The ORI study was conducted for BiggerPockets.com, a real estate investing social network.