By Jann Swanson | Mortgage News Daily
Despite over two years of declines cash sales continue to constitute more than one-third of total home sales. CoreLogic reported today that the share of those sales diminished on a year-over-year basis for the 27th consecutive month in March, accounting for 34.6 percent of total home sales compared to 39 percent in March 2014. Cash sales were down 2.8 percentage points from February 2015.
In the years before the housing crisis cash purchases accounted for about a quarter of home sales but those purchases peaked in January 2011 at 46.5 percent. Investor transactions typically account for most of the cash sales and these have been concentrated into purchases of distressed properties. In March 56.2 percent of sales of bank owned real estate (REO) properties sold were through cash transactions as were 31.6 percent of short sales. Distressed sales, however, represent a shrinking share of all sales.
