Cash sales experienced their typical increase from December to January of 1.9%, however they were down from January 2015 by 4.2%, according to a report from CoreLogic.
At this rate of decrease, cash sales could hit their pre-crisis level of 25% of market sales by mid-2017, CoreLogic's report showed.
Additionally, CoreLogic's report stated that cash sales for January were 35.5% of market sales, down from 39.7% in January 2015.
Cash sales peaked in January 2011, when the sales consisted of 46.6% of total market sales.
This chart shows the national historical trend in cash sales by sale type:
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(Source: CoreLogic)
Real estate owned sales had the highest number of cash sales in January 2016 at 59.8%. In second was resales with 35%, followed by short sales at 31.7% and newly constructed homes at 17%.
Although REO sales held the highest number of cash sales, only 7.8% of market sales in January were REO, as opposed to the peak 23.9% of market sales in January 2011. Because resales make up the majority of market sales, their cash sales percentage hold the largest impact.
This graph shows the cash sales by state:
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(Source: CoreLogic)
Alabama had the largest portion of cash sales at 53.1%. Florida came in second with cash sales making up 49.1% of market sales, followed by New York with 47.4%, Mississippi with 45.8% and West Virginia with 45.8%.