BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Birmingham ranked as the nation’s hottest major housing market for investor homebuyers in 2025, according to a new Realtor.com analysis, as investors bought homes faster than they sold them and continued to add to their local portfolios.
The Birmingham metropolitan area had the largest net investor-buying share among the country’s 50 largest metros, Realtor.com found. Investors purchased 21% of homes sold in the metro during 2025 but accounted for 14.4% of homes sold, producing a net investor-buying gap of 6.6 percentage points. Memphis ranked second at 6.2 percentage points, followed by Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas, at 5.7%.
The ranking does not mean Birmingham had the nation’s highest overall share of home sales to investors. Memphis held that designation, with investors buying 23.7% of the metro’s homes sold during 2025. Birmingham ranked fourth by that measure, behind Memphis, Kansas City and St. Louis, with investors buying 5,339 homes, or 21% of all purchases…