ATTOM Data Solutions released its third-quarter 2020 U.S. Home Flipping Report. The report showed 57,155 single-family homes and condos were flipped in the third quarter.
That amount represented 5.1 percent of all home sales in that time. That is down from last quarter, last year and is the lowest flipping rate of the last four years. The second quarter saw flips represent 6.7 percent of sales. The third quarter of 2019 saw flips as 5.5 percent of sales.
In spite of the quantity of flips decreasing, profits continued to increase. The margins reached levels not seen since 2000. The gross profit on the typical house flip in the United States in the third quarter was $73,766.
That figure represented a 44.4 percent return on investment compared to the original acquisition price.
The second quarter of 2020 saw an average $69,000 profit, or a 42.9 percent return on investment. The third quarter of 2019 saw an average $61,800 profit, or a 40.3 percent return on investment.
“Home-flipping again generated higher profits on less transactions across the United States in the third quarter of 2020 as investors continued to make more money on a declining number of deals,” Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions, said in a release.
Home flips as a portion of all home sales decreased from the second to the third quarter of 2020 in 148 of the 159 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report.
The areas with the largest decreases were Killeen, Texas; Savannah, Ga.; York, Pa.; Greely, Colo.; and Springfield, Mass.
The areas with the largest decreases in the 53 metro areas with populations of one million or more were Raleigh, N.C.; Atlanta; Kansas City, Mo.; San Diego; and Rochester, N.Y.
The biggest increases in home-flipping rates were in Davenport, Iowa; Hilton Head, S.C.; Scranton, Pa..; Amarillo, Texas; and Kalamazoo, Mich.
ATTOM’s full report also includes county-by-county data, average time to flip and location specific profits.