ATTOM: Home Flipping ROI, Activity Drop
(Image courtesy of Blue Bird/pexels.com)
ATTOM, Irvine, Calif., released its analysis of home flipping in the third quarter, finding that 72,217 single-family homes and condos were flipped in the period. That accounts for 6.8% of home sales.
But, that’s a drop both on a quarterly and annual basis. In Q2, flips numbered 79,335 (or 7.3% of all sales) and in Q3 2024 they were 75,977 (or 7% of all sales).
Return on investment for flipped homes fell to 23.1%, down from 26.5% in Q2 and 29.8% in Q3 2024. Typical flipping profit margins hadn’t fallen below 25% since Q2 2008.
Gross profits also fell–in Q3, the typical flipped home was purchased by an investor at $260,000 and sold at a national median of $320,000, with gross profits at $60,000. In Q2, the typical flip saw $68,000 in gross profits and in Q3 2024 it was $73,554.
“Home flipping activity and profitability continued to decline in Q3 2025 with typical return on investment dropping to 23.1%, the lowest since 2008,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM.
“Rising home prices and shrinking margins have made flipping increasingly challenging,” he added. “What was once a flipping market that consistently delivered 40–60% returns for more than a decade beginning in 2009 has now settled into five straight quarters of returns in the 20% range. Investors must choose their markets more carefully as the game has fundamentally changed.”
Broken down by type, the cheapest homes were most likely to lose money when flipped. Homes purchased by investors for less than $50,000 generated a typical loss on investment of 14%. The greatest returns were for homes priced between $100,000 and $200,000, which provided a typical profit margin of 31%.
Nearly two-thirds–or 62.9%–of flipped homes were purchased with cash. That compares with 62.2% in Q2 and 63.4% in Q3 2024.
It took 161 days to flip a home in Q3, compared with 165 days in Q2 and 160 days in Q3 2024.
Only 10.6% of flipped homes were sold to buyers using Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages, down from 12.2% in Q2 and up from 10.2% in Q3 2024.
