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Profits for home flippers have been on a steady decline for more than a decade, and return on investment hit a 17-year low in the second quarter of this year, impacting a market some lenders serve.
The average return on investment for a flipped home was 25.1% in the second quarter of 2025, a stark contrast to 62.9% in the fall of 2012, according to Attom, a property data and analytics firm.
Investors flipped more than 78,000 single-family homes and condos from April through June, accounting for 7.4% of total home sales during the period, a slight decrease from last year’s 7.5%.
Gross profits were also down on a monthly and year-over-year basis, as the typical flipped home earned $65,300 in the second quarter, down 4% from the previous quarter and 13.6% from the same time last year.
“We’re seeing very low profit margins from home flipping because of the historically high cost of homes,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a press release. “The initial buy-in for properties that are ideal for flipping, often lower priced homes that may need some work, keeps going up.”
The median purchase price for a home flipper was $259,700 in the second quarter, the highest it’s been since ATTOM, a property data company, began tracking it in 2000. The median sales price of flipped homes was the same as last quarter at $325,000.
“As prospective homeowners get priced out of the middle and high end of the market, they’re more likely to be competing with flippers over the same homes,” Barber said.
The fall in profits is another sign of a softening housing market, as inventory reached multiyear highs and purchase demand remained strong last month.
Minimal return on investments could lead to stricter financing standards for investors, though, as lenders may be more cautious with less room for unexpected costs.
The report also showed that Georgia was the most active state in the country, as home flips accounted for at least 13% of sales in four metropolitan areas in the state. Orlando, Florida, one of the hottest markets in 2024, saw the second-biggest drop off among metro areas with a population of more than a million from 35.6% to 22.3%.
Some factors remained steady, as 62.6% of all flipped homes were purchased entirely in cash, the same rate as a year prior, and the time it took to flip a home on average was 165 days, up from 163 days in the previous quarter but down from 167 days the same time last year.
