Small, independent investors are reshaping housing supply faster — and more affordably — than builders in most U.S. markets.
New Western, the nation’s leading real estate investment marketplace and largest home buyer, today released its Flip Side Report: Mid-Year 2025 Residential Real Estate Investing Trends, showing that in most U.S. markets, local investors are now delivering more homes to buyers than builders — and doing so faster, at lower prices, and with greater community impact. These investors are reviving vacant or distressed, unlivable properties into move-in-ready homes, turning overlooked housing stock into much-needed inventory.
The Flip Side Report uncovers a major but underreported force in America’s housing market: small, independent investors revitalizing neglected properties into affordable, move-in-ready homes — helping to close the nation’s housing affordability gap.
Key Findings from the Report:
- In analyzed markets, local investors brought 30,852 revitalized homes to market in 2025, surpassing 18,973 new builds sold in the same period.
- Revitalized homes are 35% to 80% more affordable than new construction and often priced below existing home medians. Revitalized homes are 35% to 80% more affordable than new construction, and 17% more affordable than the market median existing home sales.
- Institutional investors account for just 1.93% of all home purchases; 93.4% of investment activity comes from small, local operators.
- Over 70% of flips begin off-market, bypassing the MLS, but after being revived and listed, they generate nearly $1 billion in Q1 realtor commissions — from inventory that wouldn’t exist without investors bringing it back to life.
- With 15 million vacant homes nationwide, there’s a massive untapped pipeline of properties ready for transformation.
Quote from Kurt Carlton, Co-Founder and President of New Western:
“Everything you thought you knew about real estate is wrong. The data sets most people rely on don’t capture the full picture — entire slices of activity are missing. One of those missing pieces drove $900 million in real estate agent commissions in Q1 alone, in just 40 markets. Without those revitalized homes, that business wouldn’t have existed for agents, and those properties wouldn’t have been there for families to buy,” said Kurt Carlton, Co-Founder and President of New Western. “Our housing market is in a fragile state. If we continue down the path of deepening unaffordability — especially in the critical band of starter homes — we risk breaking the entire cycle of homeownership. It’s critical we understand the real forces at work so we can double down on the solutions that are truly driving change.”
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