More Than 10,000 NYC Homes Flipped Since 2021, new analysis shows
More Than 10,000 NYC Homes Flipped Since 2021, Concentrated in Neighborhoods of Color and Associated with Rising Home Prices, new analysis shows
New data reiterates the need to pass End Predatory Home Flipping Act
[New York City, NY — April 28, 2026]
From 2021 to 2025, 10,053 homes were flipped in New York City. These are 1-3 family homes and co-op or condo apartment units that were bought and re-sold within two years–often by professional investors aiming to make a quick profit by targeting vulnerable homeowners and making superficial renovations. In some of the last neighborhoods with affordable homeownership opportunities, home flipping is driving up prices and increasing pressure on homeowners of color. A new analysis from Pratt Center for Community Development shows that neighborhoods with the highest rates of home flipping are more than 90% people of color and have higher shares of cost-burdened homeowners than areas where flipping is less prevalent.
This data sheds light on proposed legislation that residents, housing advocates, and legislators are currently fighting for in Albany: The End Predatory Home Flipping Act (S574/A342), sponsored by New York State Senator Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, aims to deter professional investors from buying up homes by establishing a tax on home flipping in New York City. Advocates from the End Toxic Home Flipping coalition, which has been fighting for the bill since it was first introduced in 2021, hope to see it passed before the current legislative session ends this spring. The bill (previously known as the End Toxic Home Flipping Act) also has support at the City level, with a Council resolution in support of the state bill introduced by Councilmembers Sandy Nurse and Farah Louis earlier this year.
Building on research in the 2024 report Flipping Out: How Home Flipping Reduces Affordability in NYC Neighborhoods of Color, new findings from Pratt Center for Community Development show a consistent pattern: home flipping is highest in neighborhoods of color and is associated with rising home prices.
Flipping Out: 2021-2025 Data Update finds:
1. Rates of home flipping remain highest in neighborhoods of color in Central Brooklyn, Southeast Queens, the Northeast Bronx, and the North Shore of Staten Island.
In some parts of the city, like Jamaica, Queens, as much as 30% of 1-3 unit homes and apartments sold from 2021-2025 were flips. By comparison, the citywide rate of home flipping was 4.3%.
In areas of the city with the highest rates of home flipping, the population is 90% people of color.
Racial disparities in the geography of home-flipping are most stark for Black New Yorkers: in areas with the highest rates of home-flipping, 47% of the population is Black, compared to 20% citywide and 10% in areas with the lowest rates of home flipping.
2. Home flipping increases housing prices, especially in the already cost-burdened neighborhoods of color where it is most prevalent. In areas with the highest rates of home flipping, the median price flippers paid to purchase a property in 2021-2025 was $470,000, while the median price they re-sold (flipped) homes for was 64% higher at $770,000. By comparison, the median price of non-flips in those areas was $660,000.
“Our latest community-engaged research publication shows that home flipping continues to drive up home prices in neighborhoods of color,” said Alexa Kasdan, Executive Director of Pratt Center for Community Development. “We are proud to have partnered with the community-based organizations leading the End Toxic Home Flipping Coalition on this research, and hope it provides a tool for communities to advocate for policies to prevent displacement and deepen affordability in their neighborhoods.”
“The End Toxic Home Flipping Coalition has been working tirelessly to pass the End Predatory Home Flipping Act (S574/A342), and new data from our partners at Pratt Center reinforces two devastating and threatening challenges to home ownership: that predatory speculation impacts all of New York City's communities, and that communities of color and low to mid income neighborhoods are most vulnerable to this practice,” said Hailie Kim, Lead Organizer of the End Toxic Home Flipping Coalition. “We urge legislators in Albany to pass the End Predatory Home Flipping Act to curb predatory speculation and keep homes affordable.”
“New data from the Pratt Center underscores what we already know - that wealthy investors are buying up New Yorkers’ homes, superficially renovating them, and quickly selling them for huge profits. This is a toxic practice that is driving up the cost of homes and rent, particularly in neighborhoods of color like East New York and Cypress Hills,” said State Senator Julia Salazar, sponsor of the End Predatory Home Flipping Act. “Everyday New Yorkers cannot compete with corporate investors. We must pass End Predatory Home Flipping.”
“New Yorkers should be able to afford and keep their homes. However, predatory investors are increasingly making this more difficult by purchasing properties, making superficial renovations, and flipping them for massive profits at the expense of our communities,” said Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, sponsor of the End Predatory Home Flipping Act. Data from the Pratt Center makes it clear that this practice is driving up costs and pricing families out, especially in working-class neighborhoods and communities of color. That is why we must pass the End Predatory Home Flipping Act to protect homeowners and preserve affordability across New York.”
“Like deed theft, redlining, or blockbusting, home flipping is a predatory real estate practice in our city,” said Council Member Sandy Nurse. “Shady actors exploit Black and brown homeowners, undercut the value of these homes, and then sell them at huge markups out of reach to those same neighborhoods. This greed-fueled predation not only robs families of the security and peace of mind homeownership can bring, but it has also contributed to the mass exodus of Black people from this city. This is why I introduced a resolution in support of the End Predatory Home Flipping Act, and why I’ll continue fighting for more protections and financial assistance for existing and first-time Black and brown homeowners.”
“The East New York Coalition for Community Advancement has fought for neighborhoods of color, especially Black neighborhoods like our East New York community that have been most impacted by predatory speculation. In light of our community’s history of Black homeownership, it is imperative that we pass The End Predatory Home Flipping Act (S574/A342) to ensure that homes in our community remain affordable,” said Rev. Christine Valentine, Steering Committee member of the East New York Coalition for Community Advancement, which has spearheaded advocacy to address home flipping since 2016.
“Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation as a holistic community development organization has devoted resources to leading the efforts of The End Toxic Home Flipping coalition’s efforts to pass The End Predatory Home Flipping Act (S574/A342), and we are grateful for our partners at Pratt Center for their work in identifying and analyzing the data on predatory home flipping and its impacts,” said Michael Johnson, Executive Director of Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation. “Homeowners and renters in communities of color like East New York are especially vulnerable to these predatory practices which make housing unaffordable and we urge legislators in Albany to end toxic home flipping now by passing S574/A342.”
"At Chhaya, we see every day how first-time homebuyers are forced to leave their communities and the neighborhoods they helped build to move to the outskirts of New York City just to afford their first home,” said Annetta Seecharran, Executive Director of Chhaya CDC, based in Queens. “This trend is rapidly displacing and dismantling black and brown neighborhoods."
“In the neighborhoods of color that we serve, it was working class people who invested in the 80’s and 90’s when these communities needed to be stabilized. Today, those families who struggled on behalf of the city, are being deprived of their right to enjoy that investment by bad actors,” said Anthony Coker, Homeownership Program Manager at Neighbors Helping Neighbors, based in Brooklyn. “It is the city’s job to protect those community members who are its stakeholders and see an end to toxic home flipping.”
Read the policy brief, “Flipping Out: 2021-2025 Data Update,” at: prattcenter.net/flippingout-2026.
About Pratt Center for Community Development
Pratt Center for Community Development works to build community power and ensure the equitable distribution of resources for low-income BIPOC people in New York City. We do this by partnering with frontline community organizations to provide research, participatory planning, policy advocacy, and implementation support.