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Real estate investors flipped 56,566 single-family homes and condo units during the third quarter, a 12.9% sequential decline and a 6.8% drop from a year ago, according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, CA.

ATTOM also found other potential problems in the market: homes purchased by investors using financing continued to fall in 3Q19 and home-flipping rates dropped in 78% of the 147 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed.

Roughly 58.5% of homes flipped in the third quarter were bought with “all-cash,” said ATTOM, compared to 56.3% percent in 2Q19. A year ago, cash was used on 54.0% of transactions.

“After a springtime selling binge earlier this year, the home-flipping business settled way down over the summer amid a continuing scenario of languishing profits,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM. “The retreat back to more normal levels of sales comes amid broader market forces that are making it harder and harder for investors to complete the kinds of deals they were getting as recently as last year. Those forces are keeping profits way down from post-recession highs and show no signs of easing.”