Though most observers forecast rising home prices would drive investors out of the market for single family rentals, that fact is that to date investors have purchased more homes than they did in all of 2012 or 2011.

Investors have purchased more than 370,000 properties so far in 2013, already more than in either of the previous two full years according to a new investor insight report released today by RealtyTrac.

The report also found that:

• Investors have purchased more than $1 trillion in US real estate since 2011. Fifty-four percent were all-cash;
• Fifty-seven percent of investor purchases re-sold, only 1 percent re-sold by 1,000+ purchasers. Investors with 1,000+ purchases bought 36 percent of properties as foreclosures
• Out of the more than 950,000 purchases totaling more than $1 trillion made by investors since 2011, 54 percent were all-cash purchases. When the data is filtered for just entities that purchased at least 1,000 properties, the all-cash percentage skyrockets to 93 percent.
• Investors have purchased more than 370,000 properties so far in 2013, already more than in either of the previous two full years.
• The majority (54 percent) of properties purchased by investors were underwater but not in foreclosure. Meanwhile 24 percent of properties purchased by investors were in foreclosure or bank-owned, and 23 percent were a regular, equity purchases.
• Among entities that purchased at least 1,000 properties during the three-year period, 36 percent were in some stage of foreclosure (22 percent auction alone), while 37 percent were underwater and 27 percent were regular equity sales.
• Among all investor purchases during the time period, 57 percent have subsequently been re-sold, but only 25 percent of properties have been re-sold by entities purchasing at least 100 properties, and only 1 percent of properties have been re-sold by entities purchasing at least 1,000 properties.

RealtyTrac’s report, Real Estate Investor Purchase and Finance Patterns: 2011 to 2013, looks at a number of investor habits relating to real estate purchases since 2011, including the volume of properties purchased, breakdown of cash versus financed purchases, property situation (distressed, non-distressed, underwater etc.), investor purchases by property value, and number of investor-purchased properties that have since resold.

“The new investor insight report is the first of its kind and offers customers an exclusive look into investor decision making that has never been done on this scale before,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “We examined in-depth a variety of factors from cash sales to lender financing that impact real estate investing and offers key insight that no one else in the market can deliver.”

This report features purchasing activity of real estate investors across the U.S., identifying key variables by state and quarter within the last three years. The report identifies an investor as any person or entity that purchased three or more properties within a 12-month timeframe and provides key insights into the transactions made by investors over this time period, which was marked by the U.S. housing market moving from full distress mode to full recovery mode including.

Key metrics covered by the Investor Insight report:

• Transaction by Financing Type identifies by investor name how many properties were purchased with 100 percent cash, 100 percent finance, mixed cash & finance, or unknown along with the amount identified for each category.
• Finance by Lender identifies by investor name which banks by name financed investor purchases, how much was financed and how many properties were involved in the financing.
• Transaction by Situation identifies by investor name the type of situation (if any) the property was in at the time of purchase (i.e. in foreclosure, underwater, or regular purchase).
• Transaction by Amount Range identifies by investor name the number of properties purchased within set sale price ranges.

Above: Nearly a quarter of all investors’ puichases since 2011 have been full-price houses.

The bigger the investor, the less likely they are to sell. Only one percent of investors owning more than 1000 properties have sold since 2011 compared to 57 percent of all investors.