Twice As Many Flipped Homes in the DC Area This Year

• July 19, 2013

by Shilpi Paul

In news that may not be a surprise to those who have been actively searching for a house recently, house flipping is rising in frequency in the DC area, according to the Washington Post.

The data firm RealtyTrac found that the number of homes that were bought and resold within six months in our region has more than doubled since last year. 3,169 homes were “flipped” between January and June of 2013 in the metro region. It should be noted that the activity increased the most in Virginia and Maryland; in DC, only 57 homes were flipped in that time period.

However, the average gross profit for a DC flipper was high: the average purchase price was $238,298, and the gross profit on the houses, once sold, was $191,103. There was no information about how much money the developers spent rehabbing the homes, so the net profit is unknown.

From the Post:

“We’ll see the numbers taper back off,” Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac said. “There’s a perfect storm for flipping right now. You’re really seeing a market that’s evolving from a distressed market to a recovering market so that’s a great window of opportunity for flippers. But once that window is gone and home prices normalize and the distressed properties have also normalized to a low level, then the volumes will go back down.”

For the full report, check out The Post.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/twice_as_many_flipped_homes_in_the_dc_area_this_year/7341