Real Estate Investors Optimistic About 2026 Housing Market 

Real estate investor sentiment held steady in the fourth quarter of 2025 according to the Winter 2025 RCN Capital/CJ Patrick Company Investor Sentiment Index (ISI)™. The index matched the previous quarter’s score of 101, the seventh score of 100 plus in the 11 quarters since the ISI was first published in 2023, indicating a generally positive outlook by investors across the country. Investor outlook for 2026 was generally optimistic, with 38% of investors expecting market conditions to improve throughout the year, while only half as many (19%) expected conditions to worsen. 

According to the Winter 2025 RCN Capital Investor Sentiment Survey™, the percentage of investors who viewed today’s market as better or much better than it was a year ago held at 45% for the second consecutive month; those who viewed the market today as being the same as a year ago also stayed the same at 30%. Investors had similar expectations about where the market is headed over the next six months, with 44% expecting the market to improve, 36% expecting it to stay the same, and only 19% fearing it will decline. 

The Investor Sentiment Index appears to have plateaued after rising by 14 points from the Spring to the Summer and staying essentially flat over the past two quarters. This quarter’s score of 101 was four points higher than the previous year’s Winter index score, suggesting a modest improvement in investor outlook for the coming year. Last Spring’s score of 88 was the lowest in seven quarters measured to-date, so it will be interesting to see if investor sentiment maintains its current levels during the upcoming quarter.   

“Investor sentiment seems to have stabilized at a reasonably positive level, and investors seem cautiously optimistic about 2026,” said RCN Capital CEO Jeffrey Tesch. “This could be due to housing market conditions that have improved somewhat – both new and existing home sales gained momentum toward the end of 2025, price appreciation slowed down, and the inventory of homes available for sale increased. All of these trends are favorable for both fix-and-flip and rental property investors.” 

Many Investors Plan to Stay on the Sidelines in 2026
Despite a generally optimistic view of the future, investors are being very circumspect in their purchase plans for 2026. Over 34% of respondents said they planned to buy no properties in the next 12 months, up from 32% in the previous survey. Meanwhile, almost 46% plan to buy between 1-5 properties, 17% between 6-10, and almost 4% will buy 11 or more properties. 

For the majority of investors (54%), this is about the same number of properties they purchased in the last 12 months. Only 12% plan to buy more properties than last year, while just under 34% plan to buy fewer – both improvements from last quarter, when 43% planned to buy fewer homes and about 8% planned to buy more. 

Rental property investors appear more cautious about the future than flippers: almost 45% of rental investors plan to not buy any properties in the next 12 months, compared to 26% of flippers. About 50% of rental investors and 45% of flippers plan to buy between 1-5 properties, while 27% of flippers and less than 5% of rental investors plan to buy between 6-10. This could be due to a perceived (and probably temporary) over-supply of rental units in the country, as a record number of apartments have come to market in the past 18 months. 

For the largest number of respondents from each investment group, 2026 plans are similar to 2025 investing: 45% of flippers and 54% of rental investors say they’ll be buying about the same number of properties this year. But 41% of both groups say they’ll be buying fewer than a year ago. 

As has been the case consistently throughout the history of the survey, flippers were considerably more optimistic than rental property investors. Almost 52% of flippers expected conditions to improve in 2026; over 35% felt they’d stay the same; and under 13% felt things would be worse. In contrast, only 26% of rental property investors expected improvements; 51% expected the status quo; and over 23% believed that conditions would worsen.