Report: Investors Flipping Fewer Homes

New data suggest fewer California homes are being “flipped,” meaning they're being bought and sold within a 12-month period.

The numbers show more than 5,200 California residential properties, or six percent of all single family homes sold between April and June, were flips; higher than the nationwide average of 4.5 percent.

“It’s still a bit of a flippers Mecca in California. It does attract a lot of real estate investors," says Daren Blomquist with research firm RealtyTrac, which released the numbers.

He says even in "flipper Mecca," investor activity decreased by 20 percent from a year ago.

“And the profits in California are not as high, the returns, as the market gets closer to kind of a ceiling and is more competitive,” says Blomquist.

The average return on flips was 30 percent, down from 34 percent a year ago.

Blomquist says fewer flippers means less competition for people trying to buy a home and a smaller number of buyers for people trying to sell.

He says flipping is down in the Sacramento region too. But profits are up.

"That was one good thing for flippers, real estate investors, in Sacramento," says Blomquist. He says the average return made on flips between April and June in the Sacramento area was 34 percent.

"That was actually up from 29 percent a year ago. So that's one of the few markets in California where we actually saw an increase in profits on flips."

Blomquist says only six percent of the homes that sold in the Sacramento area between April and June were flipped. That's down from 17 percent a year ago. 

Meanwhile in Stockton, nearly 8 percent of the homes that sold were flips. That’s down 14 percent from a year ago. The average flipping profit of 32-percent in Stockton is relatively unchanged from a year ago.