Florida, Alabama, West Virginia Top States for Cash Home Sales

Cash home sales reached a peak in January of 2011, when 46.5% of all home sales in the United States were sold for cash. That peak was nearly double the pre–housing crisis average of around 25%. At the April rate of decline in monthly cash sales, that average should be reached in mid-2017.

The five states where cash sales were highest in April were Florida (51.4%), Alabama (48.5%), West Virginia (48.3%), New York (45.4%) and Kentucky (41.4%). Sales include new construction, resales, real-estate owned (REO) and short sales, and the data were reported Thursday by CoreLogic.

Cash sales for REO properties accounted for 56.6% of all cash sales, while cash sales for resales and short sales accounted for about 33.3% and 30.4%, respectively. All-cash sales of new homes came in at 15.3% of all new home sales.

As a percentage of all sales, REOs accounted for 7.4% of total April real-estate sales. In January 2011, REO sales accounted for nearly 24% of all sales.

Of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, the five core-based statistical areas with the greatest percentage of cash sales are:

1. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, Fla., 59.1%
2. North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla., 58.5%
3. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., 58.1%
4. Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, Mich., 58%
5. Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla., 56.9%

The metro area with the lowest percentage of cash sales was Syracuse, N.Y., with a cash sales share of 11% of all sales.