CoreLogic: Cash sales of homes decline in December in Prov. metro

CORELOGIC SAID the cash sales share of total home sales decreased year over year in December in the Providence-Warwick metropolitan area. / COURTESY CORELOGIC
CORELOGIC SAID the cash sales share of total home sales decreased year over year in December in the Providence-Warwick metropolitan area. / COURTESY CORELOGIC

PROVIDENCE – The cash sales share of total home sales in the Providence-Warwick metropolitan area decreased nearly 10 percentage points year over year in December, to 22.5 percent, which was lower than the national cash sales share at 33.4 percent, CoreLogic said Thursday.
Rhode Island’s cash sales share was similar to that of the Providence metro at 24.7 percent, a 5.3 percentage point decrease compared with December 2014, CoreLogic said.
The national cash sales share was 33.9 percent last year, the lowest it has been since 2008, CoreLogic said. December’s national cash sales share also fell 3.3 percentage points over the year.
The cash sales share peaked in January 2011 when cash transactions accounted for 46.6 percent of total home sales nationally. Before the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. If the cash sales share continues to drop, it should reach 25 percent again by mid-2017, CoreLogic said.
In December, Delaware had the largest cash sales share of any state at 57 percent, followed by Alabama at 50.1 percent and New York, 46.5 percent. The District of Columbia had the lowest at 15.9 percent. Among the 100 largest statistical areas, Detroit had the highest cash sales share at 62.7 percent. Syracuse, N.Y., had the lowest cash sales share at 12.5 percent.

Nationally, real estate-owned sales represented the largest cash sales share in December at 59.2 percent. Resales had the next highest cash sales share at 33.4 percent, followed by short sales at 30.9 percent and newly constructed homes at 15.4 percent.

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