Fewer homes flipped and lower profits. What happened?

House flippers aren’t profiting like they used to. The gross return on investment for flipping a home fell to its lowest level in 17 years in 2025, according to a new report from real estate data provider ATTOM.

The typical flipper made a 25.5% return in 2025, ATTOM said, marking the fewest homes flipped since 2020. That’s far below the returns after the Great Recession, when profits often topped 50%.

Flippers accounted for 7.4% of all home sales last year, a slight decline from recent years.

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One reason for the drop, ATTOM said, is elevated home prices driven by strong demand, which has cut into profit margins.

“Competition for homes remains strong in many markets due to constrained supply,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said. “With prices staying elevated, investors are finding it harder to secure deals that deliver strong returns.”

Another factor is waning interest among buyers. Realtor.com says some buyers prefer fixer-uppers to flipped homes.

"Affordability is what is keeping people out of the market, so they are not very responsive to paying more for a home where someone else has chosen the finishings," Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner said. "They prefer to buy fixer-uppers and put in the sweat equity themselves."

Flipping typically involves buying a home in need of improvements and selling it for profit. The average flip netted $65,981 in gross profit last year, ATTOM said.

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“Flippers are having to get more creative to maintain profitability,” Barber said. “That could include taking on older homes — the median flipped property in 2025 was built in 1978, the oldest since we began tracking — along with tighter cost control and more disciplined renovation strategies.”