Real estate investors continue to flood South Florida with money and home purchases, according to a recent Redfin report.

More than $2.15 billion in Miami home purchases were made by investors during the fourth quarter of 2021, the seventh-highest dollar amount of the 40 U.S. major metros measured by Redfin. Los Angeles was No. 1 at $6.7 billion, followed by Phoenix, New York, Atlanta and Anaheim.

More than 27% of all Miami home purchases during the fourth quarter were made by investors, the sixth-highest percentage of metros in the report. Fort Lauderdale was No. 10 in the percentage rankings. 

The top 10: Atlanta (32.7%), Charlotte (32.1%), Jacksonville (29.8%), Las Vegas (29.2%), Phoenix (28.4%), Miami (27.5%), Orlando (25.9%), Tampa (24.2%), Nashville (21.4%), Fort Lauderdale (21%).

The investor dollars have been followed by sharply rising rents in South Florida. A Zillow report this month said the typical full-year rent rose in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach region by $7,100 in 2021, the largest increase in the nation.

Nationwide, real estate investors made 18.4% of all home purchases in the last quarter of 2021, a record high, according to Redfin. The report showed big jumps in investment in Sun Belt communities with median home values below the national average like Atlanta, Charlotte and Jacksonville.

“Lower price points are still popular with investors, and I don’t expect that to change. One of their main goals is still to buy low and sell high,” Redfin economist Sheharyar Bokhari said. “But investors are also increasingly interested in higher-priced properties, partly because there’s a lack of low-priced inventory and partly because they’re betting on rising demand for high-end rentals.”