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iBuyer purchases have returned to pre-pandemic levels. The homes they’re purchasing are less expensive than the typical purchase, and they’re selling their housing inventories in 13 days, a record pace, according to a new report looking at the state of iBuying conducted by Redfin.
iBuyers make instant cash offers to home sellers who want to avoid listing the home on the market publicly. Companies like Opendoor and Offerpad offer such iBuyer services, but so do some real estate brokerages like Keller Williams, Coldwell Banker, and Redfin.
“Business really started ramping up in January and February,” said Allister Booth, an acquisitions specialist at RedfinNow in Los Angeles. “Since then, we’ve just had a constant barrage of deals. We’re back to full speed and are buying more homes than we were last year. After we buy and renovate those homes, we know we’ll be able to sell them because there are so many more buyers in the market right now than there are homes available.”
iBuyers continue to make up a small portion of the home sales. They purchased just 0.5% of homes—or 4,383 homes--that sold across 418 metro areas in the first quarter. iBuyer purchases, however, have increased 20.6% in the first quarter compared to the prior quarter, Redfin reports.
The top markets are Raleigh, N.C., where iBuyers purchased 2.9% of homes sold during the first quarter, and Charlotte, N.C., with 2.7% in sales. Other market leaders for iBuyer sales are in Durham, N.C. (2.6%); San Antonio, Texas (2.6%); Tucson, Ariz. (2.3%); and Phoenix (2.2%).
iBuyers are purchasing homes for less than the metro area’s median price, according to the Redfin report. The median dollar amount for iBuyers’ first-quarter purchases was $302,050, while the median purchase for a typical American home buyer was $320,000.
