Pennsylvania led in house flipping profits this past quarter

Pennsylvania is a great place for house flipping, with the Commonwealth earning the highest average gross flipping ROI on completed property flips with 57.2 percent this past quarter.

Among 101 markets with at least 75 single family and condo flips in the third quarter, Pittsburgh had the highest average gross flipping ROI with 78.4 percent. The York-Hanover region ranked third, Allentown-Bethlehem claimed seventh, and Philadelphia came in at ninth. The report, recently released by RealtyTrac, covers the third quarter of 2015. RealtyTrac defined flipped as when a property is sold as part of an arms-length sale for the second time within a 12-month period.

Meanwhile, for the third quarter of 2015, Philadelphia led the house flipping market for millennials.

In Philadelphia, of 425 properties purchased, or 8 percent of total sales, house flippers made an average gross of $47,909, an increase of 72 percent.

Because Philadelphia has a population of at least 25 percent millennials, and because that percentage increased between the housing market downturn from 2008 to 2013, the county qualified as a candidate.

Following Philadelphia were Saint Louis City, Missouri; Baltimore City, Maryland; Cumberland County, North Carolina; and Kings County, New York — Brooklyn. The average of gross flipping profits was at least 63 percent for all of these counties.

“After curtailing flipping activity last year due to slowing home price appreciation and shrinking inventory of flip-worthy homes, real estate investors have started to jump back on the flipping bandwagon in 2015,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “On the acquisition side, investors are finding creative ways to pinpoint potential flips in the off-market arena, and on the disposition side investors have a bigger pool of potential buyers thanks to a surge in FHA buyers this year, many of them first-time buyers looking for starter homes.”

In the third quarter, 43,197 single family homes and condos were flipped, or 5 percent of all single family home and condo sales.