In March of 2015, cash sales comprised 34.6% of all home sales, down from 39.0% in March of 2014, which marked the 27th consecutive year-over-year monthly decline. Cash sales fell by 2.8%, compared with cash sales of 38.9% in January 2015.

Cash home sales reached a peak in January of 2011, when 46.5% of all home sales in the United States were sold for cash. That peak was nearly double the pre-housing crisis average of around 25%. At the current rate of decline in monthly cash sales, that average should be reached in mid-2016.

The five states where cash sales were highest in March were Florida (51.8%), Alabama (50.0%), New York (46.5%), New Mexico (42.2%) and Michigan (41.3%). Sales include new construction, resales, real-estate owned (REO) and short sales, and the data were reported Wednesday by CoreLogic.

Cash sales for REO properties accounted for 56.2% of all cash sales, while cash sales for resales and short sales accounted for about 34.5% and 31.6%, respectively. All-cash sales of new homes came in at 14.9% of all new home sales.

As a percentage of all sales, REOs accounted for 8.4% of total March real-estate sales. In January 2011, REO sales accounted for nearly 24% of all sales.

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

• Philadelphia, Pa., 60.7%
• West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, Fla., 59.9%
• North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla., 59.5%
• Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., 59.3%
• Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla., 58.3%

The metro area with the lowest percentage of cash sales was Colorado Springs, with a cash sales share of 16.1% of all sales.

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