“Flipping” is what the real estate industry calls it when you buy a home and then sell it again with a 12-month period.
“Indicating someone who’s buying the property, presumably fixing it up and then selling it for a profit,” says Daren Blomquist with RealtyTrac.
The research firm’s latest data show about 5,500 California properties were flipped during the fourth quarter of last year. Blomquist says that was a little more than 7.5 percent of all single-family home sales.
“But that percentage was down 21 percent from a year ago, that share of flips,” he says. “So it is coming down fairly dramatically.”
The data show that on average, flippers saw a $96,000 profit – or the difference between the purchase price and the flipped price.
Blomquist says as home price appreciation slows to single digits, flippers are being more selective about the properties they buy.
This story was produced by Capital Public Radio.