Purchases of primary residences rose 17% in 2012 compared to the prior year, while purchases by investors slipped 2%, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Owner-occupied purchases of new and existing homes hit 3.3 million last year, up from 2.8 billion in 2011. The median sales price was $170,000 last year.
Meanwhile, investors purchased 1.2 million single-family properties in 2012 and 47% were distressed homes. The median sales price was $115,000. “Half of investment buyers paid cash,” according to NAR’s 2013 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey that was released Tuesday morning.
This survey captures nontraditional sales outside of multiple listing services, including sales to some institutional investors that have entered the market in 2011 and 2012.
“It is not going to capture people who purchased whole condo buildings,” said NAR spokesman Walter Molony. But it will capture people who bought a lot of individual single-family homes from a bank or in an auction.
Over half (55%) of
“Property flipping modestly increased in 2012,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “However, this isn’t flipping in the sense of what took place during the housing boom. Rather, investors generally are renovating and improving properties before placing them back on the market to resell at a profit,” he said.
The survey results show that 65% of sales in 2012 were to owner-occupants, 24% to investors and 11% to consumers seeking vacation homes. Sales of vacation properties were up 10% from 2011.
“Of buyers who financed their purchase with a mortgage in 2012, large downpayments remain typical. The median downpayment for both investment and vacation homebuyers was 27%, the same as in 2011,” the NAR survey says.
