Investors bought a record share of homes nationwide and in the Philadelphia metro area last year, with some areas in Montgomery County proving to be more attractive than others, write Kevin Schaul and Jonathan O’Connell for The Washington Post.

In 2021, investors bought close to one in seven homes sold in the nation’s top metropolitan areas, which is the most in the past two decades. In the Philadelphia metro area, 15 percent of homes were bought by investors. This is above the average for metro areas.

The people buying up homes in the metro area can be local Montco companies, larger corporations, or specific individuals using their wealth to buy real estate, and they flip the homes, rent, and they usually do not live in the properties they are buying.

Neighborhoods with a majority of Black residents have been especially targeted due to undervalued or lower-priced homes, with investors buying 30 percent of overall sold homes in mostly Black neighborhoods last year, as opposed to 12 percent in other ZIP Codes.

In Montgomery County, Conshohocken was one of the places that saw higher investor participation in the market. Eleven percent of the homes purchased here in 2021 were bought by investors. Pottstown saw even higher participation at 15 percent.

Meanwhile, Norristown recorded the highest share of homes bought by investors at 25 percent.

Read more about the housing market in Montgomery County in The Washington Post.