Margins on the average flip improved this year, but that's only half the story. According to ATTOM's Q1 2026 U.S. Home Flipping Report, the actual number of homes getting flipped kept falling even as the returns on those flips got better. That split — fewer flips, better returns — tells you something specific about who's still active in this market and why.
The Numbers
Q1 2026 (ATTOM): 64,348 single-family homes and condos flipped, representing 8% of all home sales — down from 69,711 flips in Q4 2025 and 70,579 in Q1 2025. It's the second straight quarter of declining flip volume, even as typical ROI rose to 25.4% and gross profit rose to $66,000.
Why Volume Is Falling While Returns Improve
These two trends aren't contradictory — they're connected. Higher financing costs and thinner margins earlier in the cycle pushed marginal and casual flippers out of the market, leaving a smaller pool of more disciplined, better-capitalized investors competing for deals. With fewer bidders chasing the same distressed inventory, the flips that do get done tend to be better-underwritten from the start — which is a big part of why the typical margin recovered to 25.4% after seven straight quarters of decline, per the same report.
Where Activity Is Still Concentrated
ATTOM's data also found that the flip rate — flips as a share of all home sales — actually rose quarter-over-quarter in 77% of the 174 metro areas analyzed. Read alongside a falling raw flip count, that means overall home sales volume is contracting faster than flip volume is: flipping is becoming a bigger slice of a smaller pie in most markets, not disappearing from it.
Volume and Returns, Quarter by Quarter
| Q1 2025 | 70,579 flips |
|---|---|
| Q4 2025 | 69,711 flips |
| Q1 2026 | 64,348 flips (8% of all sales) — 25.4% typical ROI, $66,000 typical gross profit |
What This Means If You're Flipping Right Now
- Less competition for well-priced deals in most markets right now than during the peak flipping years
- Sellers of distressed or dated inventory may be more receptive to investor offers with fewer buyers bidding
- Lenders, title companies, and inspection teams generally have more capacity per deal when overall transaction volume is down, which can mean faster closings
- Underwriting discipline still matters most — the investors showing up in this data with improved margins are the ones buying right, not the ones counting on the market to bail out a thin deal
The Bottom Line
Fewer investors are flipping in 2026, but the ones still in the game are doing it better. That's a market where deal selection and financing speed matter more than deal volume — a smaller, sharper pool of competitors around each good property, rather than a race to the bottom for scraps.