House-Flipping Gains Momentum As Home Prices Rise
As home prices continue to spike, the house-flipping business is making a comeback.
The number of investors that have flipped houses this year has reached pre-recession levels — within the first nine months of the year, it exceeded 2007's volume. Even big banks have returned to the game, with one-third of this year's flipped houses financed through debt.
Several Wall Street banks, including Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, are arranging finance opportunities for those looking to buy and sell homes within a few months. Hundreds of millions of dollars in deals have been made in the last several months, the Wall Street Journal reports, and it's expected to continue growing. On average, investors are looking at a $61k profit per flip—that's a big jump considering the average profit in 2009 was about $19k. [WSJ]
