Hello everybody! Welcome back to Suburban Snacks, where we not only inform you of current Real Estate topics but also review a different food item every month! A new month means a new snack and this month’s snack is… garlic pita chips! Before we review the snack, we’ll be explaining how many investors have been swooping in to buy up homes. Investors purchased 18.4% of homes in the fourth quarter—a record high, according to housing data from Redfin. Investors are seeing opportunities in turning homes into rentals and commanding higher rents or have plans to flip homes to take advantage of rising prices. Invitation Homes CEO Dallas Tanner told CNBC that after buying 1,500 homes in the last quarter, “we wish we could buy more. Demand is so large.” These investors are one of the reasons why individual buyers are having such a hard time getting a house. According to Redfin’s data, investors purchased 80,293 homes in the fourth quarter, up nearly 44% from a year earlier.