Roughly one in six California houses is owned by someone who doesn’t live there – but investors’ market clout varies across the state.
That’s what my trusty spreadsheet found after reviewing a BatchData report that found investors of all sizes own 1.28 million houses statewide – 17% of California’s supply of houses and townhomes.
Investors in this study include everything from giant companies controlling thousands of houses to folks with a small collection of rentals to short-term rental operators to people with a second home. Condo ownership was not included.
Where investors own
California’s No. 1 investor spot, by the number of houses owned, is Los Angeles County, where investors controlled 179,294 homes as of the 2025 third quarter.
Next were San Bernardino at 123,088, Riverside at 103,183, San Diego at 79,127, and Orange at 74,663. It’s a decidedly southern group.
Sparsely populated, remote counties had the fewest number of houses owned by investors: Alpine at 423, Inyo at 890, Modoc at 958, Glenn at 1,102, and Sierra at 1,170.
By the slice
Investors dominate housing in some of California’s most lightly populated counties when contemplating the share of houses not occupied by their owners.
For example, in Sierra County, 72% of houses are investor-owned. Mono is No. 2 at 64%, then Plumas at 57%, Modoc at 51%, and Alpine at 50%. Most of these investments are likely vacation homes in these hidden spots.
Investor clout is more modest around heavily populated job hubs: San Mateo at 11%, Marin and Ventura at 12%, and Los Angeles and Alameda at 13%.
Where they’re buying
It’s again a southern story when you consider the number of houses investors purchased between 2020 and the third quarter of 2025.
Statewide, it was 471,500 purchases. No stats were available for what investors sold.
The counties with the most purchases were Los Angeles at 65,496, San Bernardino at 48,889, Riverside at 45,963, San Diego at 30,314, and Orange at 27,962.
Thinly populated counties far from city life also had the fewest purchases: Alpine at 220, Glenn at 318, Modoc at 374, Inyo at 391, and Sierra at 396.
How much?
Statewide, purchases during 2020-25 averaged $876,000. At the county level, however, you see wide variations.
The highest prices paid were in Bay Area counties: San Mateo and Santa Clara ($1.74 million), Marin ($1.71 million), and San Francisco ($1.66 million). No. 5 was Orange at $1.4 million.
Low prices weren’t near metro areas: Modoc at $157,000, Lassen at $197,000, Tehama at $215,000, Imperial at $262,000, and Siskiyou at $277,000.
The bounty
Combining those purchases and prices tells you in which counties investors spent the most in 2020-25 on acquisitions that totaled $413 billion statewide.
The largest target was Los Angeles at $82 billion, followed by Orange at $39 billion, San Diego at $36 billion, Riverside at $35 billion, and San Bernardino at $25 billion.
The least? Modoc at $59 million, Glenn at $92 million, Tehama at $106 million, Colusa at $129 million, and Alpine at $132 million.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
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