Cash sales made up 35.5% of total home sales in December 2014, down from 38.5% in December 2013, marking the 24th consecutive month of declines, the latest report from CoreLogic (CLGX) said.
On a monthly basis, the cash sales share fell by half of a percentage point.
CoreLogic cautioned that due to seasonality in the housing market, cash sales share comparisons should be made on a year-over-year basis.
At its peak in January 2011, cash transactions made up 46.5% of total home sales. Prior to the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25%. Should the cash sales share continue to fall at the same rate that it did in December 2014, the share should reach 25% in mid-2017.
Looking at cash sales share by sale type, real estate owned sales had the largest cash sales share in December 2014 at 58.4%, followed by re-sales (35.4%), short sales (32.7%) and newly constructed homes (15.6%).
While the percentage of REO sales that were cash transactions remained high, REO transactions made up only 8.8% of all sales in December and, therefore, had a small 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% of total sales.
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Source: CoreLogic
Alabama experienced the largest share of any state at 52.2%, followed by Florida (50.3%), New York (45.9%), Michigan (44.6%) and Idaho (42.9%).
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Source: CoreLogic
