In the months following President Donald Trump’s executive order cracking down on institutional investors buying single-family homes, the state of real estate investing in the U.S. has taken a definite shift.
First, investors began to pull out of the market, with Redfin reporting in June that investor home purchases dropped 6% year-over-year in Q1 2026 to their lowest level since 2020. Notably, Redfin’s data tracks both small and institutional investors in one measure.
Now, Realtor.com®’s 2026 Investing Report has found that the number of homes investors have purchased remains diminished, and the demographics of investors have changed as well.
Small investors accounted for a 66.2% share of all investor purchases in the first half of 2026, which the report noted was the largest share the group has held in at least 15 years. On the other hand, large and mega investors—which includes institutional investors—sold more homes than they purchased.
The shift also comes amid larger housing market headwinds, as home prices have leveled off and interest rates shoot higher.
What hasn’t changed
While the number of homes purchased by investors has fallen, Realtor.com noted that investors do still make up a 10.7% share of the market, a similar figure to what has been recorded in recent years.
In terms of pricing, the report stated that investors are still seeing price points on homes that are 22.4% below the median price for non-investor. Notably, Realtor.com specified that this could either be due to investors still competing with first-time buyers for homes, or it could be investors focusing on lower-priced markets.
Competition with first-time buyers was what the Trump “ban” intended to phase out, but it is unclear from the report’s data whether that is still a true problem or not.
Additionally, investors are still using cash more often than typical buyers by 55.5% vs. 30% of purchases, respectively. However, this gap has narrowed from the previous peak of 68% of cash investor purchases seen in 2021 and 2022.
