More U.S. Houses Are Flipped as Prices Rise

Home flipping made a comeback last year along with the housing market. The number of U.S. homes bought and resold within six months rose to 156,862, up 16 percent from 2012 and up a staggering 114 percent from 2011, RealtyTrac reports. Flipped homes accounted for 4.6 percent of all sales in 2013 — up from 4.2 percent in 2012 — and the average margin between purchase and sale price increased from $45,759 in 2012 to $58,081 last year. “Strong home-price appreciation in many markets boosted profits for flippers in 2013, despite a shrinking inventory of lower-priced foreclosure homes to purchase,” says RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist. Also, 21 percent of all properties flipped last year were bought out of foreclosure — down from 27 percent in 2012 and 32 percent in 2011. | Read More