Investors and Second-Home Buyers Take 1 in 5 Purchases

Individual investors and second-home buyers made 1 in 5 home purchases in September, even with mortgage rates at 7%. That was the highest share in a little over a year. The figures show that a significant slice of home buying went to people purchasing property as an investment or second home, not solely as a place to live.

Property as an investment

In June, real-estate broker Justin Smith bought a duplex in Roscoe, Illinois, about 90 miles west of Chicago, for $250,000. He took out a 30-year fixed mortgage at 7%. Smith, 34, owns three apartment buildings in Roscoe and nearby Rockford. His purchase offers a specific example of buyers who already hold property continuing to add to it, even when borrowing costs run high.

Smith said smaller Midwestern cities can offer an accessible entry into real-estate investing because home prices are relatively low. That’s his explanation of the appeal. But the reported figures also show the limits of that framing: an entry point accessible to an investor buying another property isn’t the same measure as access for someone looking for a home to live in. The article gives no figures on renters, first-time buyers, or how many people competing for homes can afford them.

Zillow estimates Rockford’s average home value at about $185,000. Its estimate for the national median home value is about $366,000. Those figures describe different measures—an average in Rockford and a national median—and shouldn't be treated as a direct, like-for-like comparison. Still, they provide price context for Smith’s claim that smaller cities offer a lower-cost route into real-estate investing.

What the numbers leave out

One in five is a share of purchases, not a count of homes, and the report groups individual investors with second-home buyers. It doesn't say how many purchases belonged to each group, how many properties any particular buyer acquired, or whether the purchases changed prices in the communities named. That distinction matters: a statistic combining different kinds of buyers can show their collective presence without explaining their separate effects.

The account names no public agency, lender, or elected official making a decision about housing. It offers no legislative proposal, election promise, or grassroots response to report. There's no mutual-aid effort or direct action in the source, either. What it does describe is property changing hands as an investment, a buyer who already owns three apartment buildings, and a 7% mortgage rate on his latest purchase.

The figures don't establish that Smith displaced anyone or that investors caused a particular housing shortage. They do make clear who appears in this slice of the market: investors and second-home buyers held a notable share of purchases, while the article gives no comparable account of people seeking an affordable place to live. The property market gets measured through transactions. Those left outside the transaction count remain outside the story, too.