Flip a high-end home in Seattle and gross $97,000

Investors are profiting once again from house flipping and the Seattle area is no exception.

According to RealtyTrac’s third-quarter Home Flipping Report, Seattle ranks No. 3 in the nation for buy-and-turn profits with an average of approximately $97,000 per property. Most of the profits come from a growth in high-end flips of homes $750,000 or more, the report revealed.

Real estate investors across the country earned an average gross profit of $54,927 on single-family home turnarounds during the third quarter, according to the report.

“Increasing home prices over the past 18 months combined with decreasing foreclosures have created a market less favorable to the high quantity of middle- to low-end, bread-and-butter flips that we saw late last year and early this year,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

“But the sharp rise in high-end flipping indicates there is still good money to be made for flippers willing and able to take on the additional risk of buying and rehabbing more expensive homes. With that higher risk also comes the potential for higher reward. The average gross profit on each high-end flip equals more than four times the average gross profit on each flipped home in the lower price ranges.”

According to RealtyTrac, the following are the top housing markets for flipping in the third quarter:

1. Ventura, Calif. – Average gross profit: $143,578
2. Los Angeles – Average gross profit: $127,634
3. Seattle – Average gross profit: $97,002
4. Chicago – Average gross profit: $85,814
5. Portland – Average gross profit: $84,063
6. New York – Average gross profit: $72,722
7. Pittsburgh – Average gross profit: $59,342
8. Las Vegas – Average gross profit: $53,503