Cash sales fall in Prov. metro, R.I., in September

CORELOGIC said cash sales accounted for 21.8 percent of total home sales in September in the Providence-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area, a 0.7 percentage point decrease compared with September 2015. / COURTESY CORELOGIC
CORELOGIC said cash sales accounted for 21.8 percent of total home sales in September in the Providence-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area, a 0.7 percentage point decrease compared with September 2015. / COURTESY CORELOGIC

(Updated 11:41 a.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Cash sales accounted for 21.8 percent of total home sales in September in the Providence-Warwick-Fall River metropolitan area, a 0.7 percentage point decrease compared with the rate in September 2015, CoreLogic said Wednesday.
In Rhode Island, the cash sales share fell to 24.9 percent in September, from 26 percent in September 2015.
Cash sales shares in the Providence metro and Rhode Island were lower than the 31.7 percent national rate. The national cash sales share also declined over the year, by 1.3 percentage points, according to CoreLogic.
Cash sales peaked in January 2011, when cash transactions accounted for nearly 47 percent of total home sales nationally. Before the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. If the cash sales share continues to fall at the same rate it did in September, CoreLogic said the share should hit 25 percent by mid-2019.
Alabama had the largest cash sales share of any state at 47.6 percent, followed by West Virginia (45.8 percent), New York (45.3 percent), Florida (41.6 percent) and Indiana (40.9 percent). Washington, D.C., had the lowest cash sales share at 15.4 percent, followed by Maryland at 16.8 percent; Colorado, 21.3 percent; Minnesota, 21.7 percent; and California, 22.5 percent.

Real estate-owned sales had the largest cash sales share nationwide in September at 59.4 percent, followed by resales at 31.7 percent, short sales at 31.2 percent and newly constructed homes at 15.5 percent.

Distressed sales comprised 7.3 percent of all home sales in the United States in September, with real estate-owned sales accounting for 4.7 percent and short sales making up 2.7 percent. The distressed sales share of 7.3 percent in September was the lowest distressed sales share for any month since September 2007. At its peak in January 2009, distressed sales totaled 32.4 percent of all sales, with REO sales representing 27.9 percent of that share. Pre-crisis, the share of distressed sales was approximately 2 percent. If the current year-over-year decrease in the distressed sales share continues, it will reach that 2 percent mark in mid-2018.
All but nine states recorded lower distressed sales shares in September compared with a year earlier.
Maryland had the largest share of distressed sales of any state at 18.9 percent in September, followed by Connecticut (18.4 percent), Michigan (17.6 percent), New Jersey (15.9 percent) and Illinois (15.1 percent). North Dakota had the smallest distressed sales share at 2.7 percent.

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