In May of 2015, cash sales comprised 31.9% of all home sales, down from 35.1% in May of 2014, marking the 29th consecutive year-over-year monthly decline. Cash sales fell by 1.9 percentage points compared with cash sales of in April.

Cash home sales reached a peak in January of 2011 when 46.5% of all home sales in the U.S. were sold for cash. That peak was nearly double the pre-housing crisis average of around 25%. At the May rate of decline in monthly cash sales that average should be reached again in mid-2017.

The five states where cash sales were highest in May were Florida (47.8%), New York (45.8%), New Jersey (45.8%), Alabama (44.2%), and Michigan (38.4%). Sales include new construction, resales, real-estate owned (REO), and short sales, and the data were reported Tuesday by CoreLogic Inc. (NASDAQ: CLGX).

Cash sales for REO properties accounted for 56.6% of all cash sales, while cash sales for resales and short sales accounted for about 33.3% and 30.4%, respectively. All-cash sales of new homes came in at 15.3% of all new home sales.

As a percentage of all sales, REOs accounted for 6.4% of total May real-estate sales. In January 2011 REO sales accounted for nearly 24% of all sales.

Of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, the five Core-Based Statistical Areas with the greatest percentage of cash sales are:

• West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, Florida – 58.1%
• North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida – 55.9%
• Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida – 55.9%
• Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, Michigan – 54.6%
• Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Florida – 54.6%

The metro area with the lowest percentage of cash sales was Syracuse, New York, with a cash sales share of 11.6% of all sales.

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