Renovated homes continue to attract more online interest and sell faster than other older properties — but their long-standing fix-and-flip advantage has narrowed sharply as higher mortgage rates reshape buyer behavior, according to a new Realtor.com report.
The analysis builds on earlier research showing fixer-uppers are priced 54.2% below the national median for single-family homes.
While updates still appeal to buyers, today’s borrowing costs have made it harder for sellers to command premiums.
“Higher mortgage rates change the math for buyers and sellers alike,” said Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com. “Renovated homes still catch buyers’ eyes, but financing the cost of those improvements at today’s rates is less appealing to today’s price-sensitive shoppers.
“That’s why we’re seeing the performance gap between flipped homes and other older homes shrink compared with 2021.”
Similar homes, higher cost per square foot
Nationally, flipped homes closely resemble other older homes in terms of bedroom counts, bathroom counts and overall pricing.
Median listing prices sit near $380,000 for flipped homes, compared with about $385,000 for other older properties. But the similarities fade on closer inspection.
Flipped homes tend to be smaller, carry higher prices per square foot and are more often located in urban areas. About 40.4% of flipped homes are in urban ZIP codes, compared with 32.1% of other older homes.
Renovated homes still outperform in visibility and speed. In October 2025, flipped homes generated about 6.5% more page views per listing and spent roughly 10 fewer days on the market than comparable older homes.
In 2021, when mortgage rates were far lower, the gap was much wider, with flipped homes drawing 25% more page views per listing.
Discounts grow at closing
Despite solid online interest, pricing power has weakened.
Among flipped homes listed in July 2025 that have since sold, the median sale price represented an 8.3% discount from the highest post-renovation list price.
Comparable older homes sold at a median discount of 2.9%.
That marks a sharp shift from 2021, when flipped homes sold at a 0.9% discount — similar to the 0.4% seen for other older homes.
Fix-and-flip activity remains concentrated below the midpoint of local markets. The typical flipped home was bought at 51.4% of its metro’s median price and listed at 87.8% after renovation.
Measuring the ‘flip factor’
The report introduces a new metric, the “Flip Factor,” which tracks how far renovations move homes up market. Nationally, this factor is 36.4 percentage points.
Only eight metros saw flipped homes listed above the local median.
Pittsburgh led the group, while Detroit combined a large supply of flippable homes with strong post-renovation gains.
Outside Pittsburgh and Cape Coral, Florida, most markets exceeding the median were expensive Western metros, with Seattle the only one above the national average.
“We’re in a market where renovation alone no longer guarantees pricing power,” Berner said. “Flipped homes still draw attention and tend to move faster than other older homes, but sellers are increasingly having to recalibrate their expectations as higher mortgage rates constrain what buyers can afford.”