Cash Sale Volume Continues to Fall

Fewer people continue to rely on cash sales for their residential property purchasing, according to new data released by CoreLogic.

During July, 30.8 percent of total home purchasing involved cash sales, down 0.5 percent from June. In July 2014, 34.2 percent of these transactions involved cash sales. CoreLogic stated that the latest data reflects the lowest level in cash sales in nine years; the cash sales peak was 46.5 percent in January 2011. The pre-housing crash market averaged about 25 percent, a level that CoreLogic is forecasting for mid-2017.

Real estate-owned (REO) sales had the greatest volume of cash sales in July, with 56 percent, while re-sales totaled 30.2 percent, followed by short sales at 28 percent and newly constructed homes at15.6 percent.

On a state level, Alabama had the largest share of July cash sales (47.4 percent), followed by Florida (44.7 percent), New York (42.8 percent), West Virginia (41.1 percent) and New Jersey (39.5 percent). Five Florida markets had the largest cash sale volume as measured by major metro areas: West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach (53.2 percent), followed by Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla. (52.2 percent); North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla. (50.1 percent); Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla. (48.4 percent); and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (47.9 percent).