Cash sales in made up 34.4 percent of all home sales in the U.S. during May, the lowest share since May 2010 and down from 37.4 percent from the same month a year ago, according to CoreLogic. In Minnesota, cash sales represented 25 percent of all closings.
Those cash deals been falling since January 2013. But prior to the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged about 25 percen after peaking in January 2011 when cash transactions made up 46.2 percent of total home sales.
Who's paying cash? Buyers of real estate owned (REO) listings were most likely to pay cash, the represented about 55 percent of all deals. Buyers of existing houses paid cash 34 percent of the time and short sales represented 32.8 percent of all deals. New home buyers paid cash only 16.8 percent of the time.
Here's where cash sales were most common:
- Florida: 53.4 percent
- New York: 50.3 percent
- Alabama: 48.9 percent
- West Virginia: 48.3 percent
- South Dakota: 46.3 percent
