31 Percent of All U.S. Home Sales in June Were Cash, New York Lead City

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CoreLogic is reporting this week that cash sales made up 31.3 percent of total home sales in June 2015, down from 33.9 percent in June 2014. The year-over-year share has fallen each month since January 2013. Month over month, the cash sales share fell by 0.7 percentage points in June 2015 compared with May 2015. Due to seasonality in the housing market, cash sales share comparisons should be made on a year-over-year basis.

The cash sales share peaked in January 2011 when cash transactions made up 46.5 percent of total home sales nationally. Prior to the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. If the cash sales share continues to fall at the same rate it did in June 2015, the share should hit 25 percent by mid-2017.

Real estate-owned (REO) sales had the largest cash sales share in June 2015 at 57 percent and was the only sales category to see a year-over-year increase in the cash sales share. Resales had the next highest cash sales share at 30.8 percent, followed by short sales (28.7 percent) and newly constructed homes (15.6 percent). While the percentage of REO sales that were all-cash transactions remained high, REO transactions made up only 6 percent of all sales in June 2015. In January 2011 when the cash sales share was at its peak, REO sales made up 23.8 percent of total home sales. Resales typically make up the majority of home sales (about 83 percent in June 2015), and therefore have the biggest impact on the total cash sales share.

New York had the largest share of any state at 47 percent, followed by Florida (45.8 percent), Alabama (44.8 percent), New Jersey (40.7 percent) and Oklahoma (39.6 percent). Of the nation's largest 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, FL had the highest cash sales share at 55.5 percent, followed by Philadelphia, PA (55.1 percent), North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (54.5 percent), Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL (53.5 percent) and Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, MI (52.9 percent). Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD had the lowest cash sales share at 13.4 percent.