Flippers find fun, and riches

The allure of flipping a house in Tampa for a quick profit has dimmed.

The region posted a 17% drop in flipping in 2013 from 2012, according to a RealtyTrac report. Tampa, the report adds, is one of several major markets to post an annual decrease in flipping, which RealtyTrac considers a home purchased and sold again with six months. Other cities with a drop include Philadelphia, down 43%; Phoenix, off 32%; Houston, down 17%; Denver, with a 15% drop; and Minneapolis, off 9%.

But the drop in Tampa and other markets doesn't represent a national trend. Instead, Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, in its year-end Home Flipping Report, says single-family home flips nationwide increased 16% in 2013 over 2012 and 114% over 2011.

A total of 156,862 homes were flipped in the United States in 2013, the research firm says. Metro areas that led the nation in a flipping increase in 2013 include Virginia Beach, up 141%; Jacksonville, up 92%; Baltimore, up 88%; Atlanta, up 79%; and Richmond, Va., up 57%.

The market share of the flipping niche is one the upswing, too: Homes flipped in 2013 accounted for 4.6% of all U.S. single-family home sales, RealtyTrac reports, up from 4.2% in 2012 and 2.6% in 2011. The amount of properties flipped bought out of foreclosure, meanwhile, is down, to 21% of all properties in 2013. That figure was 27% in 2012, RealtyTrac states, and 32% in 2011.

“Strong home price appreciation in many markets boosted profits for flippers in 2013, despite a shrinking inventory of lower-priced foreclosure homes to purchase,” RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist says in a release.