The share of owner-occupant single-family home and condo buyers fell to a new low, according to data from RealtyTrac.
RealtyTrac's Cash, Investor & Distressed Sales report found that owner-occupant buyers represented just 63.2% of all residential property sales, the lowest level since the housing information provider began tracking these sales.
"Investor activity continues to represent a disproportionately high share of all home sales activity in this housing recovery, but unlike the past three years the large institutional investors are backing out while the smaller, midtier and mom-and-pop investors are remaining active," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, in a May 1 press release.
Institutional investors purchased 14,621 single-family homes, or 3.4% of all sales. This figure is down from 6.2% the previous year.
Memphis, Tenn., had the highest share of institutional buyers of any metropolitan area with more than 500,000 people at 14.1%. The metropolitan area with the highest share of overall investor purchases meanwhile was Cape Coral, Fla., at 60.4%.
Additionally, all-cash transactions declined to a new low of 25.9%, down from 30.3% in the linked quarter. The share of non-owner-occupied purchases made all in cash decreased to 44.7% from 61% a year ago, according to the RealtyTrac report.
"A growing number of investors are not buying all-cash, but instead are taking advantage of the broader set of financing options now available to them," Blomquist added.
Florida cities constituted the five metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of all-cash sales, as Miami came out on top with 51.5%.
The report also found that the U.S. median home price rose 8% year-over-year, to $175,000 in March. Distressed median home process increased 7% during this same time period to $120,000, while nondistressed properties had a median sales price of $190,000 for the month.
