For the better part of this year, investors have been slowly trickling out of the home buying market, but in August they apparently cut off the cash flow in a big way.
Sales of existing homes fell an unexpected 1.8 percent from July, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), but more dramatic was the drop in investor sales. Investor activity in 2012 and 2013 was the main driver behind double-digit price gains.
Just 12 percent of August purchases were by individual investors, down from 16 percent in August; investors had been making up nearly one-third of home purchases during the worst of the housing crash nationally, and in some markets they accounted for well more than half.
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