Big investors are buying up SLC's homes despite cooling national market
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Institutional investors are buying up a smaller share of homes in Utah — but not in Salt Lake City.
Why it matters: Big investors — think hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate investment trusts — often buy homes in cash and in bulk.
- That's hard for average families to compete with, especially first-time homebuyers.
The big picture: Investors have pulled back on home purchases nationally in recent years, which could make homeownership more attainable in tight markets.
- But SLC buyers will have to wait for that advantage.
By the numbers: Statewide, investors bought 6.6% of homes sold in the first quarter of 2025 — down from 7.7% a year earlier, according to ATTOM, a real estate data firm.
- In some Utah metros, the plunge was even bigger. Investor share of home purchases dropped from 9.8% to 7.8% in Provo, and 8.7% to 6% in Ogden.
Yes, but: In SLC, investor purchases held steady at 7.4%.
Zoom out: Across the country, the total number of homes sold to institutional investors in the first quarter of 2025 was the lowest since 2020.
- Salt Lake's share is more than 1 percentage point higher than the national rate (6.3%), per ATTOM's report.
- The data measures investors who purchased at least 10 residential properties in a calendar year.
Between the lines: Markets that are attractive to investors have strong population and job growth, solid rental yields, landlord-friendly regulations, affordability and long-term appreciation potential, ATTOM CEO Rob Barber told Axios.
Context: The share of homes sold to large investors fell in more than two-thirds of the 178 metros for which ATTOM provided data.
Reality check: Although investors aren't losing interest in SLC, they bought a much bigger share of housing in other cities: about 17% in Birmingham, Alabama; 14% in Memphis; and 11% in Indianapolis, Kansas City and Fayetteville, North Carolina.
What we're watching: Whether Utah investors start selling more homes than they're buying — a shift that's already happened in other western states like Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and California, according to data from Realtor.com that shows all 2024 purchases and sales by investors, large and small.
- Washington and Colorado are close, with investors' share of purchases barely 1% greater than their share of sales.
- Utah investors, by contrast, are still buying a 3.8% greater share than they're selling — the 12th biggest gap in the nation.