New data shows flipped homes losing pricing power even as they still sold fast
Flipped homes still look like crowd‑pleasers on listing sites in 2025, but higher borrowing costs have already eaten into their pricing edge – and, increasingly, their profits. That shift left fix‑and‑flip investors rethinking how much they could pay for aging stock, and how far renovation alone could push a property up‑market.
Realtor.com’s latest analysis found renovated homes drew more eyeballs and moved faster than comparable older stock, yet commanded weaker premiums than during the low‑rate boom.
In October, flipped homes received about 6.5% more page views per listing on Realtor.com and spent roughly 10 fewer days on the market than other older homes, a much slimmer advantage than in 2021, when they drew 25% more views.
“Higher mortgage rates change the math for buyers and sellers alike,” Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, said.
“Renovated homes still catch buyers' eyes, but financing the cost of those improvements at today's rates is less appealing to today's price-sensitive shoppers. That's why we're seeing the performance gap between flipped homes and other older homes shrink compared with 2021.”
Flipped homes’ discount deepened at sale
On the back end of the deal, flippers’ pricing power slipped further. Among flipped homes listed in July 2025 that had sold by September, the median sale closed at an 8.3% discount to the highest post‑renovation list price, versus a 2.9% discount for comparable older homes.
In 2021, both categories typically sold within 1% of peak list, a reminder of how quickly the rate reset had cooled bidding wars.
“We're in a market where renovation alone no longer guarantees pricing power,” Berner said.
“Flipped homes still draw attention and tend to move faster than other older homes, but sellers are increasingly having to recalibrate their expectations as higher mortgage rates constrain what buyers can afford.”
Affordable metros led the “flip factor” league table
Nationally, the typical flipped home was purchased at about half of its metro’s median listing price and then listed at just under 90% of that median after renovation.
Only eight US metros saw the median flipped home listed above the local median. Pittsburgh stood out, with typical flips bought at 48.1% of the metro median and relisted at 106.3%, yielding a flip factor of 58.2 percentage points.
Affordable Midwest and Southeast markets such as Cleveland, Buffalo and Birmingham also posted large flip factors as low entry prices gave investors more room to add value.
By contrast, Western metros where flipped homes ended above the median – including Seattle, Denver and several California markets – generally featured higher purchase prices and younger housing stock that landed higher up the price ladder after a cosmetic overhaul.
Broader pressure on flip margins
Similarly, a separate 2025 analysis from data provider ATTOM showed home flipping profits in the US falling to their lowest level in nearly 17 years as acquisition and rehab costs climbed.
In that report, typical returns exceeded 100% only in a handful of metros such as Pittsburgh and Scranton – outliers in a market where “most investors faced tightening spreads.”
Max Chera, managing partner at Express Capital Financing also pointed to a gradual pivot toward ground‑up construction, arguing that intense competition and squeezed margins had made traditional flips harder to pencil out.
“A lot of flippers are even trying to transition and get into the ground-up construction space,” he told Mortgage Professional America, citing persistent housing shortages and builders’ ability to manage costs at scale.
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