Housing
September Cash Home Sales Highest in Alabama, West Virginia, Florida
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In September of 2015, cash sales comprised 32.5% of all home sales, down from 35.9% in September of 2014, marking the 33rd consecutive year-over-year monthly decline. Cash sales rose by 0.2 percentage points month over month.
Cash home sales reached a peak in January of 2011 when 46.6% 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 September rate of decline in monthly cash sales, that average should be reached again in mid-2017.
The five states where cash sales were highest in September were Alabama (48.2%), West Virginia (46.0%), Florida (45.2%), New York (44.1%) and Kentucky (39.6%). Sales include new construction, resales, real-estate owned (REO) and short sales, and the data were reported Monday by CoreLogic.
Cash sales for REO properties accounted for 58.3% of all cash sales, while cash sales for resales and short sales accounted for about 32% and 29.1%, respectively. All-cash sales of new homes came in at 15.9% of all new home sales.
As a percentage of all sales, REOs accounted for 6.4% of total September 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 in September were:
- Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla.: 50.8%
- West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, Fla.: 50.6%
- Philadelphia, Penn.: 48.9%
- Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla.: 47.9%
- North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.: 47.2%
The metro area with the lowest percentage of cash sales was Syracuse, N.Y., with a cash sales share of 14.1% of all sales.
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