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It's Hard Out There for Atlanta Home-Flippers, Report Says

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Only Las Vegas saw lower home-flipping gains last year than Atlanta

Strolling through any neighborhood within a 10-minute radius of downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead reveals no shortage of older homes being transformed into something more appealing to today's buyers — despite rising land costs and, in some cases, half-million-dollar price points for the timeworn homes themselves. Which makes a new report by real estate brokerage Redfin somewhat surprising. In short, according to Redfin, only Las Vegas saw lower home-flipping gains last year than Atlanta.

Flipped houses — defined as "homes that are bought and resold within a year for a gain" — scored an average of $68,500 per house for metro Atlanta flippers. That's far below the national average of $102,400 per house. (Las Vegas, another market brutalized by the Great Recession, saw significantly less still: $53,600 per house).

Contrast that to the most lucrative markets for home-flippers last year: San Francisco ($216,000 per home, on average), San Jose ($174,800), and Long Island ($152,600).

The report appears to have taken into account data from Atlanta's suburban markets, where housing is vastly cheaper and would drag down sheer flipping gains.

Still, across the board, U.S. home-flippers realized more gains on their investments than ever before in 2015. That average gain of $102,400 per flip is far higher than the peak of $90,900 during the last housing boom.