National Investment Property Sales Remain Strong

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its 2014 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey today.

It’s my favorite report of the year.

NAR’s survey is based on investor purchases of single family homes, townhouses and condos, and multi-unit properties like duplexes, triplexes and apartment buildings.

For the third year in a row, the median purchase price for an investment property rose to $130,000. This happened in spite of an 8.5 percent decline in investment home sales to 1.1 million properties; down slightly from 2012’s 1.21 million sales.

Nearly half of the 2013 investment properties (46 percent) were purchased with cash.

It should be no surprise that 47 percent of the investments purchased were either foreclosures (29 percent) or short sales (18 percent).

On average, the typical investor intends to own their property for five years.

More than 80 percent of the people who purchased either an investment property or vacation home believe now is a good time to buy real estate. They’re willing to back up that belief as well, as 60 percent of investment buyers intend to buy another one in the next two years.

Interest rates remain low, and rent keeps rising.

It’s still a great time to invest in real estate.