Yates County Flips See Negative Gross ROI of -1.9% in July 2026
With just 9 homes flipped over the past year, the market recorded an average gross loss of $6,000 per transaction.
Real estate investors in Yates County, New York, encountered challenging conditions in July 2026, with property flips recording an average gross loss. According to BatchData's Flip Activity Report, the county saw just 9 homes flipped over the trailing 12 months, resulting in an average gross profit of $-6K per flip and a gross ROI of -1.9%. This performance stands in stark contrast to the positive returns typically sought by investors engaged in house flipping, signaling a unique and difficult environment for capital deployment in this specific market.
County Overview
Yates County's flip activity signals a notably cool market for investors. Over the 12-month period ending July 2026, only 9 residential properties were bought and resold within a year, indicating limited investor interest or opportunities. This volume places Yates County at #57 among New York's 62 counties, a smaller share compared to more active markets. The county's 9 flips represent just 0.1% of the total 9,352 flips recorded across New York State during the same period, further highlighting its marginal contribution to the state's overall flipping landscape. This low volume suggests a thin market where individual transactions can significantly impact overall averages and make the market less predictable for new entrants.
The financial outcomes for these transactions were notably negative. The average gross profit for flips in Yates County stood at $-6K, translating to an average gross ROI of -1.9%. This figure reflects a pre-cost loss, meaning that even before accounting for rehabilitation expenses, holding costs, or selling fees, investors on average sold properties for less than their original purchase price. For real estate investors and press, understanding these gross figures is crucial, as a negative gross ROI suggests a fundamentally unprofitable market for this strategy. Capital deployed in such a market not only fails to generate a return but actively diminishes in value. The average time to flip in Yates County was 140 days, a period typically associated with faster capital turns, yet here it occurred alongside negative returns. This indicates that properties were not held long enough to potentially recover value or that market conditions deteriorated rapidly, forcing quick sales at a loss. Such a short hold length combined with negative gross returns presents a significant red flag for typical flip strategies.
Local Market Context
The specific dynamics within Yates County diverge significantly from broader state and national trends, where property real estate investing typically aims for positive gross margins. New York State saw a total of 9,352 flips, while the national total reached 341,944 flips, putting Yates County's 9 transactions into perspective as a very small segment of the overall market. The negative gross ROI of -1.9% in Yates County suggests that local market conditions did not support profitable quick-turnaround sales during this period. This could be influenced by factors such as limited buyer demand, unexpected drops in property values, misjudgments in acquisition pricing, or renovation budgets that were not offset by resale values. The low volume of activity means that the market is not robust enough to absorb many distressed or mispriced properties without significantly impacting averages.
For small landlords and institutional investors alike, the data from Yates County presents a cautionary tale. A market with an average gross loss before costs, even with a relatively short average days to flip of 140 days, signals high risk. Investors seeking opportunities in this region would need to conduct exceptionally thorough due diligence, potentially leveraging a property data API and advanced property search tools to identify highly specific, undervalued assets or niche buyer segments. This granular data analysis becomes critical where broad market trends do not support traditional investment strategies. BatchData's market reports help pinpoint such localized divergences from general market expectations, providing essential intelligence for strategic decision-making.
The comparison with the larger New York State market, which recorded 9,352 flips, underscores Yates County's unique position. While larger markets may absorb some unprofitable flips within a broader context of positive returns, Yates County's limited activity and negative average gross profit highlight a market where the typical flip strategy was not yielding returns for investors in July 2026. This indicates that while other areas might offer robust opportunities for capital growth through property rehabilitation and resale, Yates County presented significant challenges for those engaged in such ventures. The county's ranking as #57 of 62 counties in New York, with only 0.1% of the state's total flip volume, confirms its status as an outlier in the state's investor landscape. This suggests that the local economic fundamentals or property value trajectories in Yates County are not currently aligned with successful flipping outcomes, demanding a highly specialized approach from any prospective investor.