Homeowners sold 21,523 homes using an iBuying service in the fourth quarter, according to Zillow’s fourth-quarter iBuyer report. The iBuyer market share was 1.7 percent, down from a record high of 1.9 percent in the third quarter.
The median markup for homes bought and sold by iBuyers in the fourth quarter was 1.1 percent, the second-lowest figure of any quarter on record.
Even so, the number of homes bought and sold by iBuyers hit new heights in 2021. iBuyers bought 70,402 homes in 2021, more than double the previous annual high of 32,726 in 2019. They completed 44,933 home sales last year, exceeding the previous high of 28,265 homes sold in 2019.
The fourth quarter represented the second-strongest quarter in history in terms of the number of homes sold using an iBuying service, according to the report. Homeowners in Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas–Fort Worth, Charlotte, N.C., and Houston sold the most homes using an iBuying service in the quarter.
While about 20 percent fewer homes were sold using an iBuyer nationally in fourth quarter compared with the third quarter, the number of iBuyer sales increased four markets: Columbia, S.C. (up 91.2 percent); Miami (up 21.9 percent); Lakeland, Fla. (up 5 percent); and Raleigh, N.C. (up 4.2 percent).
Raleigh was the only metro where more than one in 10 homes sold in the fourth quarter used an iBuyer (11 percent), according to Zillow. It was followed by Tucson, Ariz. (9.5 percent), Atlanta (8.9 percent), Jacksonville (8.9 percent) and Phoenix (8.8 percent).
iBuyers typically held the homes they sold in the fourth quarter for 98 days, three weeks longer than in the third quarter and more than a month longer than the record low of 63 days in the second quarter. Winter is usually a slow season for housing, which Zillow said likely contributed to the longer hold time.