Seeking Alpha in the Housing Market

We examine short term trades in the housing market over the period 2000–2013 using nationally representative data across multiple U.S. housing markets. Such trades, often characterized as “house flipping”, have gained currency in recent years with reality television shows depicting success and failure. We find evidence of returns in excess of market house price index growth (which we call alpha) during certain time periods with results that also vary across distressed versus non-distressed acquisition strategies.