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Flipping Houses Isn’t Paying Like It Used To

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Reality TV may have convinced you that flipping houses should be your next career. But lately, it’s been difficult to turn a profit by taking a run-down property and transforming it into someone else’s dream home.

According to the real estate data company Attom, returns on home-flipping in 2025 fell to 25.5%, the lowest level since the 2008 recession. The 297,045 single-family homes and condos flipped last year were the fewest since 2020, marking a 3.9% drop from 2024.

So why, exactly, is the couple where one sells macramé scarves on Etsy and the other bartends on weekends having trouble earning more profit on their $1.2 million home flip?

Sky-high mortgage rates and home prices, along with a limited supply, are cutting into investors’ bottom lines, making the endeavor not worth it for many.
Attom also said that the rising cost of supplies (some of which are tariff-related) has helped create more flops than flips.

But you’ll flip over this: Forecasters predicted an improved market in 2026, and so far they’re right—if just barely. The profit margin for home flippers in Q1 of this year was 25.4%, up slightly year over year from 24.7%, representing the first quarterly increase in two years, per Attom. The average profit in the US in early 2024 was closer to 35%.—DL

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Flipping Houses Isn’t Paying Like It Used To

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