September Cash Home Sales Highest in Alabama, West Virginia, New York

In September of 2016, cash sales comprised 31.7% of all home sales, down from 34.5% in September of 2015, marking the 45th consecutive year-over-year monthly decline. Cash sales rose by 0.6 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%. If cash sales continue to fall at the September rate, the 25% rate should be achieved by mid-2019.

September data were reported Tuesday by CoreLogic. For all of 2015, 33.9% of all home sales were cash transactions, the lowest total since 2008.

The five states where cash sales were highest in September were Alabama (48%), West Virginia (46%), New York (45%), Florida (42%) and Indiana (41%). Sales include new construction, resales, real-estate owned (REO) and short sales.

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The five states posting the largest share of distressed sales in September were Maryland (18.9%), Connecticut (18.4%), Michigan (17.6%), New Jersey (15.9%) and Illinois (15.1%).

Cash sales for REO properties accounted for 59.4% of all cash sales, while cash sales for resales and short sales accounted for about 31.7% and 31.2%, respectively. All-cash sales of new homes came in at 15.5% of all new home sales in September.

As a percentage of all sales, REOs accounted for 4.7% of total September real estate sales. In January 2011, REO sales accounted for nearly 24% of all sales.

The state with the lowest percentage of distressed sales was North Dakota, with 2.7%. At their peak in January 2009, distressed sales accounted for 32.4% of all REO sales. Prior to the housing crisis, the share of distressed sales traditionally held at around 2%.

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