Home Flipping Volume Falls To 5-year Low As Profit Margins Hit 2008 Levels

Home flipping activity slipped again in 2025 as investors completed 297,045 single-family home and condominium flips nationwide. That was the lowest annual total since 2020 and down 3.9% from 309,050 flips in 2024, according to ATTOM’s 2025 year-end U.S. Home Flipping Report.

Flips made up 7.4% of all home sales in 2025, slightly below 7.6% a year earlier. The pullback came even as national home prices climbed to record highs, compressing real estate investor margins to levels last seen during the fallout from the Great Recession.

After booming in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis — when purchase prices were often below $150,000 and returns exceeded 50% — rising home prices have pushed investor margins back toward pre-crisis levels.

Despite record median home prices, investor returns declined. The typical flip generated a $65,981 gross profit, down from $77,000 in 2024, with return on investment (ROI) falling to 25.5% — the lowest since 2008, compared to 32.1% the prior year.

“Competition for homes remains strong in many markets due to constrained supply,” Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, said in a statement. “With prices staying elevated, investors are finding it harder to secure deals that deliver strong returns.”

“Flippers are having to get more creative to maintain profitability,” Barber added. “That could include taking on older homes, as the median flipped property in 2025 was built in 1978, the oldest since we began tracking, along with tighter cost control and more disciplined renovation strategies.”

Flip rate down in two-thirds of metros

The share of homes flipped, as a percentage of total sales, fell year over year in 142 of the 215 metropolitan statistical areas with at least 200,000 residents and at least 100 flips in 2025.

Markets with the largest declines in flipping rates included Salisbury, Maryland (down 42.2% from 2024); Tallahassee, Florida (down 37.5%); and Lafayette, Indiana (down 36%).

At the same time, some metros saw notable increases in flipping activity, with the top three being Binghamton, New York (up 136.4% from 2024); Boulder, Colorado (up 72.4%); and Greeley, Colorado (up 49.4%).

More than one-third of flips were acquired with the help of financing in 2025. ATTOM found that 37.7% of flipped homes were purchased with some form of investor financing, up from 36.9% in 2024.

Metros with the highest share of financed acquisitions included San Diego (61.3% of flipped homes purchased with financing); Lincoln, Nebraska (60.6%); and Des Moines, Iowa (59.9%).

By contrast, cash remained dominant in several smaller and mid-sized markets, including St. Cloud, Minnesota (94.3% of flipped homes purchased with cash); Utica, New York (89.8%); and Ocala, Florida (84.5%).

Profitability deteriorated across most of the country. Profit margins fell year over year in 150 of the 215 metro areas ATTOM analyzed.

Some of the sharpest drops in typical ROI were concentrated in smaller markets where 2024 returns had been unusually high, such as Ocala, Florida, which was down from 492.5% in 2024 to 124.1% in 2025. Ocala was followed by Salisbury, Maryland, down from 107% to 38.2%, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, down from 94.1% to 48.4%.

Some metros, however, saw improving spreads. Peoria, Illinois, was up from 61.2% in 2024 to 91.4% in 2025, and Huntington, West Virginia was up from 50.6% to 77.2%.

Among metros with at least 1 million residents, the steepest margin declines included Louisville, Kentucky (down from 66.6% in 2024 to 40.2% in 2025); Oklahoma City (down from 60.8% to 36.8%); and Rochester, New York (down from 82.9% to 61.3%)/

Days to flip hold near pre-pandemic norms

The average flip in 2025 took 163 days from acquisition to resale, one day longer than in 2024 and roughly two weeks faster than in 2020, when flips averaged 176 days.

Holding times remaining stable suggests that, despite tighter deals, demand for renovated inventory remains solid, even with affordability constraints and higher mortgage rates affecting end buyers.

About 11.3% of flipped homes nationwide were sold to buyers using Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans in 2025, up from 10.7% in 2024.

At the county level, flips accounted for more than 10% of all home sales in 101 of the 851 counties ATTOM tracked with at least 50 flips in 2025.

Several Georgia counties posted the highest flipping rates in the nation, including Cobb County (19.6% of all home sales were flips) and Clayton County (19.5%).

In the fourth quarter of 2025, ATTOM reported that 68,999 homes were flipped by 54,992 investors, for an average of 1.25 homes per investor. The typical gross profit was $62,000, for a 23.6% margin, down from 24% in Q3 and the lowest quarterly margin since Q3 2007.