Research from Parcl Labs shows that the largest investors are now net sellers of homes.
“In every major metropolitan housing market, investors make up a larger share of for-sale listings than they do of the total housing stock.” In cities such as Dallas, Philadelphia and Houston, the shift is particularly pronounced. In Dallas, for example, investors own 9.2% of the housing stock but account for 22.8% of new for-sale listings.
FirstKey Homes “appears to be most motivated, with more than twice the listings of its peers,” according to Parcl. The firm is “offering much deeper price cuts, an average 10% off original list prices, and is reducing prices about every 20 days.”
“It’s a volatile housing market, and folks are trying to take risk off the table,” said Jason Lewris, co-founder of Parcl Labs. He noted that rents “are not holding up relative to what investors can get if they sell.”
“So it’s better risk-adjusted returns to just get that cash and see how things pan out,” he said.
Public Landlords Report Net Sales
In its latest quarterly earnings release for the fourth quarter of 2025, Invitation Homes reported that “all 368 of its wholly owned acquisitions were newly constructed homes purchased from various homebuilders.” During the same period, it reported selling 315 existing homes.
For the full-year 2025, Invitation Homes said “almost all” of its 2,410 wholly owned acquisitions were bought through homebuilder relationships, while it sold 1,356 wholly owned homes, “frequently to families purchasing for their own use.”
Meanwhile, AMH, formerly known as American Homes 4 Rent, has been building entire rental communities itself for several years. In its latest fourth-quarter earnings release, CEO Bryan Smith said, “Since the inception of our ground up development program, we have contributed over 14,000 newly built homes to the nation’s housing stock. Our results in 2025 and outlook for 2026 reflect continued focus on expanding the nation’s housing supply, elevating the resident experience, and creating value for all our stakeholders.”
Executive Order and Proposed Legislation
In late January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order “aimed at restricting large, institutional investors from buying single-family homes to use as rentals.” The order included “an exemption on purchasing new construction specifically built as rentals.”
The White House later sent proposed legislation to Congress stating that investors owning more than 100 single-family homes would be banned from buying any more, though they “didn’t have to sell what they have.” Senate and House bills outline slightly different thresholds for defining large investors, though “they are not far apart.”
To put the numbers in perspective, single-family rentals make up roughly 10% of U.S. housing stock. According to analysis from Bank of America, 80% are owned by so-called mom-and-pop operators with fewer than 10 homes each. Smaller investors owning between 10 and 1,000 homes account for 17% of landlords. Large institutional investors owning more than 1,000 homes make up just 3% of the single-family rental market.
“The numbers, however, are coming down.”
A Retreat That Began Before 2025
Investors initially entered the market aggressively following the subprime mortgage crash that led to the Great Recession. With home prices in some markets dropping by half and foreclosures soaring, investors “bought the homes at bargain prices and turned them into lucrative rentals.”
As housing markets recovered, entry-level homes became scarcer for owner-occupants, as investors focused on that segment. In cities like Atlanta, “regular buyers couldn’t compete with investors, who usually came carrying cash.” Some neighborhoods became nearly fully investor-owned.
But by 2022, even before Trump’s second term, investors were already pulling back, “buying fewer homes, according to Parcl.” Selling accelerated in late 2024, with investors in Atlanta “now selling nearly two properties for every one they buy.”
Pivot Toward Build-to-Rent
Investors are now “pivoting to build-for-rent.”
Much of the net selling shift “was a natural process of recycling capital,” said Rick Palacios, director of research at John Burns Research and Consulting.
“Home prices ran up post-2020, and many single-family rental investors sold assets into a rising home price backdrop, then redeployed capital into higher-yielding build-to-rent versus buying on resale at those very high prices and elevated borrowing costs for investors, too,” Palacios said.
He added that builders “adjust their prices in real time,” while resale sellers typically do not.
“This offered opportunities for investors to purchase at discounts from builders,” he said.
Invitation Homes has been purchasing homes from builders such as Lennar. In January, the company announced it had acquired Atlanta-based ResiBuilt Homes, described as “a build-to-rent developer in high-growth markets across the Southeast.” ResiBuilt had been delivering about 1,000 homes per year, with Invitation Homes expecting to expand that output.
“One of the most constructive ways we can help is by adding more homes to the markets we serve,” said Dallas Tanner, CEO of Invitation Homes, during an earnings call with analysts. “While our home-builder partnerships have supported that effort for years, our acquisition of ResiBuilt expands it even further and improves our control over cost, product quality and delivery pace.
