Cash Buyers Make up 34 Percent of All U.S. Home Sales in August

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According to CoreLogic, cash sales made up 33.8 percent of total U.S. home sales in August 2014, down from 36.4 percent in August 2013. The year-over-year share has fallen each month since January 2013. Month over month, the cash sales share ticked up by less than one percentage point, however, cash sales share comparisons should be made on a year-over-year basis due to the seasonal nature of the housing market.

The month-over-month cash share has increased in August for 14 out of the past 15 years. Prior to the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. The peak occurred in January 2011 when cash transactions made up 46.3 percent of total home sales.

Real estate owned (REO) sales had the largest cash sales share in August 2014 at 56.9 percent, followed by re-sales (33.4 percent), short sales (31.8 percent) and newly constructed homes (16.5 percent). While the percentage of REO sales that were cash transactions remained high, REO transactions made up only 7.2 percent of total sales in August and, therefore, did not have a large influence on the overall cash sales share. In January 2011, when the cash sales share was at its peak, REO sales made up 23.9 percent of total sales. A trend to watch is the cash share of re-sales, which has fallen almost 14 percentage points from its peak cash share of 47.2 percent in February 2011. This category will determine the direction of cash sales going forward, since re-sales make up the largest share at 80.4 percent of all sales.

Florida had the largest share of any state at 49.8 percent, followed by Alabama (48.9 percent), West Virginia (45 percent), New York (44.4 percent) and Delaware (44 percent). Of the nation's largest 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, Fla. had the highest share of cash sales at 56.3 percent, followed closely by Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla.(56.3 percent), Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (55.3 percent), Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, Mich.(54.9 percent) and Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla.(54.8 percent). Syracuse, N.Y. had the lowest cash sales share at 14.1 percent.