All-Cash Sales Share Hits New High

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IRVINE, CA-All-cash purchases account for 42% of all residential property sales in November, up from 38.8% in October and also up from a year ago, reports local source of foreclosure data RealtyTrac. States with the highest percentage of cash sales were Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Michigan.

Institutional-investor purchases represented 7.7% of all residential property sales in November, up from 7.1% in October and up from 6.3% a year ago, the firm also reports. Markets with the highest share of institutional-investor purchases included Columbus, OH; Phoenix; Atlanta; Jacksonville, FL; and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL.

“The housing market recovery continued to be driven by investors and other cash purchasers in November,” says Daren Blomquist, VP at RealtyTrac. “Lenders are taking advantage of this environment to unload more of their back-owned inventory and in-foreclosure inventory at the foreclosure auction. But as the backlog of distressed inventory available dries up in many of the markets with the most efficient foreclosure processes—namely, California, Arizona and Nevada, with Georgia not far behind—overall sales volume is declining and will continue to do so until more non-distressed sellers enter the market.”

RealtyTrac also reports that annualized sale volume declined in November from the previous month in 18 states and was down from a year ago in four states: California, Arizona, Nevada and Rhode Island. Annualized sales volume declined from a year ago in 14 of the nation's 50 largest metros, including seven California metros, two in both Arizona and New York, along with Las Vegas; New Haven, CT; and Portland, OR.

As GlobeSt.com reported earlier this week, reported foreclosure filings decreased 15% in November from the previous month and 37% from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac.. The monthly decrease was the biggest month-over-month decrease since November 2010, when US foreclosure activity plummeted 21% in one month following the revelation of the so-called robo-signing scandal in October of that year, according to the firm.

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