Investors bought a record share of homes in 2021. See where.

An analysis of 40 major metro areas revealed unequal levels of investor activity, with southern cities and Black neighborhoods disproportionately affected

By Kevin Schaul and Jonathan O'Connell
Feb. 16, 2022

Last year investors bought nearly one in seven homes sold in America’s top metropolitan areas, the most in at least two decades, according to the realty company Redfin.

Those purchases come at a time when would-be buyers across the country are seeing wildly escalating prices, raising the question of what impact investors are having on prices for everyone else. Investors were even more aggressive in the final three months of the year, buying 15 percent of all homes that sold in the 40 markets.

Real estate investors can be large corporations, local companies or wealthy individuals, and they generally don’t live in the properties they are buying. Some look to flip homes to new buyers, while others rent them out.

Neighborhoods where a majority of residents are Black have been heavily targeted, according to a Washington Post analysis of Redfin data. Last year 30 percent of home sales in majority Black neighborhoods were to investors, compared with 12 percent in other Zip codes, The Post’s analysis shows. ... “We know historically that places where minorities live are undervalued or lower priced,” said Redfin’s Sheharyar Bokhari. That, he said, makes them more attractive to investors, driving up prices for residents.

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Ted Mellnik contributed to this report.

About this story

The Post analyzed Zip code-level data provided by Redfin. Redfin defined investors as buyers whose name included the keywords “LLC,” “Inc,” “Corp” or “Homes,” or whose ownership code includes the keywords “association,” “corporate trustee,” “company,” “joint venture” or “corporate trust.” (For our analysis, Redfin excluded the buyer keyword “Trusts” from its analysis to be more conservative in its findings, since some families own their homes through trusts.) Redfin included the 40 most populous metros where counties disclose sales prices. Redfin’s metro boundaries are either Metropolitan Statistical Areas or metropolitan divisions, depending on the metro.

The Post excluded Zip codes with fewer than 10 sales in 2021 from the maps, and those with fewer than 25 sales from the race and income analyses.

Race and income data is from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Kevin Schaul | Follow https://twitter.com/kevinschaul
Kevin Schaul is a senior graphics reporter for The Washington Post. He holds corporations accountable using data and visuals.

Jonathan O'Connell | Follow https://twitter.com/jocwapo
Jonathan O'Connell is a reporter focused on business investigations and corporate accountability. He has covered economic development, commercial real estate and President Donald Trump's business. He joined The Post in 2010.