Interactive tool · Companion to the investor and cash-buyer study
Homebuyer Competition Explorer
Who is buying homes in the Washington, DC metro, and how are they paying? Explore Redfin's official investor-purchase, all-cash and down-payment data against the national figures. Built alongside Who Is Buying the American Dream?
Latest published figures · Redfin
- DC metro investor share · Q2 2026
- 9.49%
- −0.27 pts vs Q2 2025. U.S.: 16.23%.
- DC metro investor purchases, 2025 vs 2019
- −1.07%
- All other purchases: −29.83%. Investor share 7.98% → 10.89%.
- DC metro all-cash share · June 2026
- 18.18%
- −0.78 pts vs a year earlier. U.S.: 25.66%.
- DC metro median down payment · June 2026
- $75,000
- 12.76% of price, financed buyers only. +9.41% vs a year earlier.
Investor data through Q2 2026; financing data through June 2026. Redfin's next update is scheduled for December 2, 2026.
Part 1 · Explore the series
Investors, cash and down payments over time
Choose a measure, a geography and a period. Every point is a published Redfin value; hover, tap or use the arrow keys on the chart to read any period. Measures with different denominators are never drawn together.
Measure
Geography
Period
Quarterly · Redfin
Investor share of home purchases
Percent of all home purchases, quarterly. Axis starts at zero.
- Washington, DC metro
- United States
View data table for Investor share of home purchases (46 periods, newest first)
| Period | DC metro · value / vs year earlier | U.S. · value / vs year earlier | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2026 | 9.49% | −0.27 pts | 16.23% | −0.66 pts |
| Q1 2026 | 12.05% | −1.33 pts | 19.32% | −0.41 pts |
| Q4 2025 | 11.53% | +0.07 pts | 18.28% | +0.55 pts |
| Q3 2025 | 9.69% | −0.57 pts | 16.77% | +0.16 pts |
| Q2 2025 | 9.76% | +0.48 pts | 16.89% | −0.63 pts |
| Q1 2025 | 13.39% | +0.57 pts | 19.73% | −0.06 pts |
| Q4 2024 | 11.46% | −0.26 pts | 17.73% | −1.99 pts |
| Q3 2024 | 10.26% | +1.09 pts | 16.61% | −0.51 pts |
| Q2 2024 | 9.28% | +0.46 pts | 17.52% | +0.56 pts |
| Q1 2024 | 12.82% | +1.64 pts | 19.79% | +0.92 pts |
| Q4 2023 | 11.72% | +0.52 pts | 19.72% | +0.84 pts |
| Q3 2023 | 9.17% | −0.14 pts | 17.12% | −1.46 pts |
| Q2 2023 | 8.82% | −0.24 pts | 16.96% | −3.70 pts |
| Q1 2023 | 11.17% | +1.19 pts | 18.87% | −2.47 pts |
| Q4 2022 | 11.20% | +2.92 pts | 18.89% | −1.58 pts |
| Q3 2022 | 9.31% | +1.90 pts | 18.58% | −0.46 pts |
| Q2 2022 | 9.06% | +2.12 pts | 20.66% | +3.37 pts |
| Q1 2022 | 9.98% | +1.67 pts | 21.35% | +4.76 pts |
| Q4 2021 | 8.28% | +0.57 pts | 20.46% | +6.60 pts |
| Q3 2021 | 7.41% | +1.46 pts | 19.05% | +6.55 pts |
| Q2 2021 | 6.93% | +0.40 pts | 17.30% | +5.53 pts |
| Q1 2021 | 8.31% | −0.91 pts | 16.59% | −0.97 pts |
| Q4 2020 | 7.71% | −1.48 pts | 13.86% | −2.59 pts |
| Q3 2020 | 5.95% | −1.73 pts | 12.50% | −2.02 pts |
| Q2 2020 | 6.54% | −0.42 pts | 11.77% | −2.53 pts |
| Q1 2020 | 9.22% | +0.64 pts | 17.56% | +0.99 pts |
| Q4 2019 | 9.19% | +1.16 pts | 16.44% | +0.75 pts |
| Q3 2019 | 7.68% | +0.27 pts | 14.52% | +0.36 pts |
| Q2 2019 | 6.96% | −0.30 pts | 14.29% | −0.20 pts |
| Q1 2019 | 8.59% | −0.66 pts | 16.57% | −0.30 pts |
| Q4 2018 | 8.04% | −0.34 pts | 15.70% | +1.00 pts |
| Q3 2018 | 7.41% | +0.57 pts | 14.16% | +1.01 pts |
| Q2 2018 | 7.26% | +0.32 pts | 14.49% | +1.20 pts |
| Q1 2018 | 9.24% | +1.03 pts | 16.87% | +2.06 pts |
| Q4 2017 | 8.38% | +1.38 pts | 14.69% | +1.88 pts |
| Q3 2017 | 6.84% | +0.38 pts | 13.15% | +1.33 pts |
| Q2 2017 | 6.93% | +0.41 pts | 13.30% | +1.32 pts |
| Q1 2017 | 8.21% | +0.42 pts | 14.81% | +0.76 pts |
| Q4 2016 | 7.00% | −0.68 pts | 12.82% | −0.28 pts |
| Q3 2016 | 6.45% | +0.10 pts | 11.82% | +0.28 pts |
| Q2 2016 | 6.52% | +0.54 pts | 11.98% | −0.06 pts |
| Q1 2016 | 7.79% | −0.39 pts | 14.06% | −0.38 pts |
| Q4 2015 | 7.67% | +0.12 pts | 13.09% | −0.20 pts |
| Q3 2015 | 6.35% | −0.96 pts | 11.54% | −0.59 pts |
| Q2 2015 | 5.98% | −1.23 pts | 12.04% | −1.26 pts |
| Q1 2015 | 8.17% | −1.10 pts | 14.44% | −1.24 pts |
Part 2 · Calendar years
A rising share is not the same as more investors
A share can rise because its numerator grows or because its denominator shrinks. Redfin's share is investor purchases ÷ all purchases, so all purchases can be recovered from the file; this view splits each year into investor and all other purchases.
Geography
Washington, DC metro
Change in purchases, 2019 to 2025
Percent change in calendar-year totals. Bars run from zero.
- Investor purchases
- −1.07%5,345 → 5,288
- All other purchases
- −29.83%61,646 → 43,258
- All purchases
- −27.53%66,991 → 48,546
Investor share of purchases: 7.98% in 2019 → 10.89% in 2025 (+2.91 pts).
| Year | DC share | DC investor / all | U.S. share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 6.86% | 3,689 / 53,795 | 12.58% |
| 2016 | 6.84% | 3,971 / 58,051 | 12.53% |
| 2017 | 7.48% | 4,990 / 66,708 | 13.89% |
| 2018 | 7.86% | 5,205 / 66,235 | 15.16% |
| 2019 | 7.98% | 5,345 / 66,991 | 15.31% |
| 2020 | 7.20% | 5,013 / 69,655 | 13.81% |
| 2021 | 7.66% | 6,641 / 86,715 | 18.41% |
| 2022 | 9.73% | 6,154 / 63,266 | 19.99% |
| 2023 | 10.04% | 4,718 / 46,969 | 18.04% |
| 2024 | 10.77% | 5,407 / 50,213 | 17.80% |
| 2025 | 10.89% | 5,288 / 48,546 | 17.79% |
Descriptive only. These counts show how many purchases each group made; they do not show why owner-occupant purchases fell, or whether investors outbid other buyers.
Part 3 · How buyers pay
Cash buyers, and how financed buyers borrow
Two different denominators. The all-cash share is a share of all purchases. The loan-type bars are shares of financed purchases only — cash sales are removed before the shares are calculated — so the two should never be added together.
Compare June 2026 with
Washington, DC metro
Loan type of financed purchases
- Conventional, conforming
- 65.54%
- Conventional, jumbo
- 3.79%
- FHA
- 11.98%
- VA
- 18.69%
Median down payment $68,549 (10.29% of price), financed buyers.
- Conventional, conforming
- 68.74%
- Conventional, jumbo
- 3.35%
- FHA
- 11.37%
- VA
- 16.54%
Median down payment $75,000 (12.76% of price), financed buyers.
- Conventional, conforming
- Conventional, jumbo
- FHA
- VA
United States
Loan type of financed purchases
- Conventional, conforming
- 70.77%
- Conventional, jumbo
- 6.77%
- FHA
- 14.91%
- VA
- 7.55%
Median down payment $69,000 (16.38% of price), financed buyers.
- Conventional, conforming
- 71.46%
- Conventional, jumbo
- 6.96%
- FHA
- 13.40%
- VA
- 8.18%
Median down payment $69,250 (16.36% of price), financed buyers.
- Conventional, conforming
- Conventional, jumbo
- FHA
- VA
Part 4 · National only
Investor share by property type
Redfin publishes investor data by property type for the United States only. It is shown for national context; it does not describe the DC metro. Second quarters are compared so seasonality does not distort the view.
| Property type | Investor share · Q2 2019 | Investor share · Q2 2025 | Investor share · Q2 2026 | Share of all investor purchases · Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single Family Residential | 13.59% | 16.26% | 15.70% | 70.56% |
| Condo/Co-op | 15.24% | 17.48% | 16.90% | 18.16% |
| Townhouse | 12.50% | 15.64% | 13.72% | 5.95% |
| Multi-Family (2-4 Unit) | 34.05% | 34.17% | 34.17% | 5.33% |
Source: Redfin Data Center, Investor Home Purchases by Category, "United States of America", property-type rows (file last modified November 2, 2026; downloaded November 3, 2026; latest quarter Q2 2026). Bars scale to 40%. Price-tier rows are not shown because their cut-offs are not defined in Redfin's methodology.
Part 5 · Definitions
Five kinds of buyer that are easy to conflate
Investors, cash buyers, institutional investors, LLC buyers and first-time buyers overlap in real life but are measured — or not measured — by different sources with different denominators.
Investor purchase (Redfin)
Measured here- Source
- Redfin Investor Home Purchases
- Definition
- A purchase whose buyer, in county deed records, is a corporation, LLC, partnership or other non-individual entity — flagged by Redfin's records provider or by a name containing LLC, Inc, Corp, Trust or Homes.
- Denominator
- All home purchases in the same period (single-family, condo/co-op, townhouse, 2–4 unit).
- Coverage
- Washington, DC metro and U.S., quarterly.
- Caution
- A wide net: it includes small landlords using an LLC and family trusts bought for personal use, and misses investors who buy in their own names.
All-cash purchase (Redfin)
Measured here- Source
- Redfin Financing Trends
- Definition
- A sale with no recorded mortgage financing in public records.
- Denominator
- All home purchases in the month.
- Coverage
- Washington, DC metro and U.S., monthly.
- Caution
- Cash buyers include owner-occupants (for example, downsizers using equity) as well as investors. The files do not show how many investors paid cash or how many cash buyers were investors.
Institutional investor
Not measured- Source
- No series in these files
- Definition
- Large investors, often defined by portfolio size (for example, owning hundreds or thousands of homes).
- Denominator
- —
- Coverage
- —
- Caution
- Redfin's investor measure combines institutional and mom-and-pop investors and cannot separate them. No institutional share is reported here.
LLC purchase
Not measured- Source
- Part of Redfin's investor flag, not a separate series
- Definition
- A purchase by a limited liability company.
- Denominator
- —
- Coverage
- —
- Caution
- LLC buyers are one of several triggers for Redfin's investor flag; the files do not break LLCs out.
First-time buyer
Context only- Source
- NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers
- Definition
- A primary-residence buyer who had not owned a home before, as reported in NAR's annual survey.
- Denominator
- Primary-residence buyers responding to the survey (investors and vacation homes excluded).
- Coverage
- U.S. only; transactions July 2024–June 2025.
- Caution
- A survey of owner-occupants with a different population and period. It cannot be compared with Redfin's record-based shares, and no DC figure is published.
Part 6 · National survey context
First-time buyers, from a different kind of source
Redfin's files do not identify first-time buyers. NAR's annual survey does, nationally — but it surveys owner-occupants only, covers a different period and has no DC figure. It is context, not a comparison.
Not comparable with Redfin. NAR's 30% all-cash figure is for repeat owner-occupant buyers in a survey; Redfin's all-cash share counts every recorded purchase.
- First-time buyers, share of all buyers
- 21%
- Lowest since NAR began tracking in 1981
- Median age of first-time buyers
- 40
- Median down payment, first-time buyers
- 10%
- Median down payment, repeat buyers
- 23%
- Repeat buyers paying all cash
- 30%
Primary-residence purchases, July 2024–June 2025. Mailed survey of 173,250 recent buyers; 6,103 responses (adjusted response rate 3.5%). Results represent owner-occupants and exclude investors and vacation homes. National Association of REALTORS®, 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers (press release, November 4, 2025) (opens in a new tab)
Part 7 · Evidence and open questions
What the data shows — and what it doesn't test
Descriptive evidence
- 1
In the DC metro, investors made 5,288 purchases in 2025, 1.07% lower than in 2019 (5,345), while all other purchases were 29.83% lower. The investor share rose from 7.98% to 10.89% mainly because other purchases fell.
- 2
Nationally, investor purchases were 15.79% lower in 2025 than in 2019 and all other purchases 29.64% lower, taking the investor share from 15.31% to 17.79%.
- 3
The DC metro's highest quarterly investor share since 2015 was 13.39% in Q1 2025. In Q2 2026 it was 9.49%, −0.27 pts against a year earlier; the U.S. share was 16.23% (−0.66 pts).
- 4
The all-cash share was lower than a year earlier in every one of the first six months of 2026 in the DC metro, and in every one nationally. DC's January–June average of monthly shares was 20.39%, against 21.48% in 2025.
- 5
In June 2026, 18.18% of DC metro purchases were all-cash — the lowest monthly share since July 2022. DC's all-cash share was below the national share in 138 of 138 months since January 2015.
- 6
Financed DC metro buyers put down a median $75,000 (12.76% of price) in June 2026, against $69,250 (16.36%) nationally. VA loans made up 16.54% of DC financed purchases, against 8.18% nationally.
Hypotheses — not tested here
- Did owner-occupant purchases fall more than investor purchases because higher borrowing costs weigh more on buyers who need a mortgage? Mortgage rates are not in these files, so this is not tested.
- Do cash offers win more often in competitive bidding? The files record financing, not offers or bidding outcomes.
- How much of the all-cash share is investor buying, and how much is equity-rich owner-occupants? The two files cannot be linked.
- Is DC's high VA-loan share related to the region's military and federal workforce? Plausible, but nothing here measures buyers' occupations.
- Are rising dollar down payments driven by higher prices, larger down-payment percentages, or a changing mix of buyers? Prices are not in this file.
Part 8 · Data status
What is loaded, and what is not
- Investor purchases and investor shareDC metro and U.S., quarterly, 2015-Q1 to 2026-Q2.Loaded
- All-cash share of purchasesDC metro and U.S., monthly, January 2015 to June 2026.Loaded
- Median down payment ($ and % of price), financed buyersDC metro and U.S., monthly, January 2015 to June 2026.Loaded
- Loan type of financed purchases (FHA, VA, conforming, jumbo)DC metro and U.S., monthly; denominator excludes cash sales.Loaded
- Investor share by property typeRedfin publishes category data for the U.S. only; no DC breakdown exists in the file.National only
- Investor share by price tierPublished for the U.S., but the tier cut-offs are not defined in Redfin's methodology, so it is not shown.Not available
- Institutional vs. small investors; LLC purchasesNot separated in any Redfin file.Not available
- Prices paid by investors or by cash buyersNeither file reports purchase prices.Not available
- Overlap of investors and cash buyersThe two files are separate aggregates; they cannot be linked.Not available
- First-time buyer shareNAR survey context (U.S., July 2024–June 2025); no DC figure.National only
- Share of buyers putting 10%+ downDescribed in Redfin's methodology but not included in the downloaded file.Not available
Investor Home Purchases
Quarterly · REDFIN_METRO "Washington, DC" (city Washington, state DC; the file carries no region ID) and "United States of America"
Used: 2015-Q1 to 2026-Q2. File last modified 2026-11-02; downloaded 2026-11-03. Next Redfin update 2026-12-02.
Not described as seasonally adjusted. Investor share is seasonal (first quarters run highest), so only like quarters are compared.
SHA-256 351037e63a22c9b49e7c25969a3c97c12e65fb69a2a0258fcd557b2facdbded1
Data page (opens in a new tab)Methodology (opens in a new tab)Redfin's file (.csv.gz)
Investor Home Purchases by Category
Quarterly · "United States of America" only — the file has no metro rows
Used: 2019-Q2 to 2026-Q2. File last modified 2026-11-02; downloaded 2026-11-03. Next Redfin update 2026-12-02.
Not described as seasonally adjusted; only second quarters are compared.
SHA-256 ce1c549a31b746f1d0f2c3a8fc12e1970f01001e9108187b93df8031d0e8b52f
Data page (opens in a new tab)Methodology (opens in a new tab)Redfin's file (.csv.gz)
Financing Trends: Cash Purchases, Loan Types & Down Payments
Monthly · REGION_NAME "Washington, DC" (REGION_ID 47894) and "National" (REGION_ID 1400)
Used: 2015-01 to 2026-06. File last modified 2026-11-02; downloaded 2026-11-03. Next Redfin update 2026-12-02.
Not described as seasonally adjusted; only like months are compared.
SHA-256 06e564115370b9f87e62bf16cdd519ac68fd505ee6cd979bf9f588d7c5008b6e
Data page (opens in a new tab)Methodology (opens in a new tab)Redfin's file (.csv.gz)
Method & limitations
How to read this tool
Values are exactly as published in Redfin's downloadable files. The only derived figures are sums, simple averages and differences, each labeled where it appears. Nothing is modeled, forecast or filled in.
Geography
Redfin's "Washington, DC" metro (region ID 47894 in the financing file) — a multi-jurisdiction region spanning the District and parts of Maryland and Virginia, not the District alone. The investor file carries the same label but no ID. National figures are Redfin's own U.S. rows.
Who counts as an investor
Any buyer recorded as a corporation, LLC, partnership or other entity, or whose name contains LLC, Inc, Corp, Trust or Homes. Includes small landlords and some family trusts; misses investors buying in their own names.
Different denominators
Investor and all-cash shares divide by all purchases. Loan-type shares and down payments cover financed purchases only. Measures with different denominators are never drawn on one chart.
Seasonality
Redfin does not describe these series as seasonally adjusted, and investor shares peak in first quarters. The tool compares like quarters and like months only.
Recovered totals
All purchases are recovered as investor purchases ÷ investor share; the result is a whole number to within 0.001 in every quarter, confirming the denominator. Annual shares are purchase-weighted from those totals.
Revisions and coverage
Both files come from county records and are subject to revision. Redfin excludes areas where record quality or non-disclosure laws prevent reliable reporting. The next update is scheduled for December 2, 2026.
What these files cannot show
Institutional vs. small investors, LLCs on their own, prices paid by any buyer group, whether investors paid cash, offers or bidding outcomes, or first-time buyers.