Bidding wars no more: Regular people have a better shot at scoring a home as investors flee once-hot cities from Phoenix to Atlanta

• Real-estate investors spent billions buying homes to flip or rent out when it was cheap to borrow.
• But investors have backed off, especially in formerly hot areas like Phoenix, Redfin found.
• The significant drop in investor purchases means less competition for regular homebuyers.

Real-estate investors are known for "doing the numbers," or calculating the potential profitability of a project, before snapping up homes to renovate and rent out or sell for a profit.

New evidence, however, suggests that the numbers don't seem to be working anymore.