Investors bought $1.65B in homes in the Tampa Bay metro area in Q3. Here's how that stacks up nationally.
By Ashley Fahey
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Nov 29, 2021

Wall Street is buying up homes across the country. That's not news — but investors are continuing to gain market share amid an extremely competitive national housing market.

The Business Journals analyzed data from Seattle-based Redfin Corp. (NASDAQ: RDFN), which tracked how many homes investors bought in 40 major metropolitan areas across the U.S. in the third quarter. Investors had a record quarter, buying 90,215 homes worth a combined $63.6 billion.

Investors made up 18.2% of all housing sales in Q3, also a record, Redfin found.

The Tampa Bay metro area saw an increase of 24.5% in this past quarter compared to the 12.6% seen during this time last year. Additionally, investor activity surged to 108% year-over-year in the area. Investors bought 4,995 Tampa homes in Q3 for a total dollar value of $1.65 billion, while the median home sale price of these purchases was $282,100.

This quarter's price change can be compared to Q2, where investors bought 3,802 homes valued at $1.25 billion which was a 152.8% increase year-over-year in the area change in the area.

The data excludes some notable metro areas, including Dallas and Austin, Texas. Redfin typically analyzes home sales in the 50 most populous metro areas, but only included 40 metros in the Q3 report because of nondisclosure of sales prices in some counties.

A dive into the markets where investors were prolific this summer and early fall reveals, no surprise, that Sun Belt metros are among the top markets for investor activity. It's where people continue to migrate to, after all, and with home prices still relatively more affordable than other parts of the country, they continue to draw renters, owner-occupiers and investors alike.

Many of the top metros have seen investor activity more than double in their respective housing markets in the past year.

There's nothing in the forecast to suggest investor activity will slow, either. With rental rates on the rise and billions being poured into the sector, investors big and small will likely continue to see upside for single-family rentals.