The industry is seeing its lowest share of cash sales since August of 2008.
Is the era of buying homes with cash ending?
Falling 35.9% from July 2013, cash sales only made up 32.9% of total home sales in July 2014, according to CoreLogic’s latest report on July’s cash sales.
The cash sales share remained mostly flat each month, falling only one tenth of a percentage point from June 2014. However, it’s important to note that cash sales share comparisons should be made on a year-over-year basis due to the seasonal nature of the housing market.
Since January 2013, cash sales have fallen every month. The peak of cash sales occurred in January 2011, when transactions totaled 46.3% of total home sales. Prior to the housing crisis, cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25%.
“A trend to watch is the cash share of re-sales, which has fallen almost 15 percentage points from its peak cash share of 47.1% in February 2011,” the report said. “This category will determine the direction of cash sales going forward, since re-sales make up the largest share at 81% of all sales.”
Rowland Title Company 