Cash Home Sales Skyrocket Across U.S.
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – If you want to buy property in the state of Florida, there's one thing that you need to get it done: cold, hard cash.
New figures from the real estate website RealtyTrac.com found that 62.7 percent of sales in Florida were made for cash; was more than any other state in the country. Georgia was second in cash sales at 51.3 percent followed by Nevada at 51 percent, South Carolina at 50.3 percent, and Michigan at 49 percent.
Overall, 42 percent of sales in November across the country were made for cash, which was the highest level RealtyTrac had seen since it began tracking the data in 2011. Residential homes sold at an annual pace of roughly 5.14 million units in November, a jump of 10 percent from last year.
RealtyTrac said the share of cash sales should begin to decline as the glut of foreclosures and short sales begin to shrink. But, the housing recovery will only be fully underway if traditional buyers begin to replace cash buyers and investors as they pull away from the market.
RealtyTrac says the Jacksonville and Fort Myers real estate markets had some of the nation's highest share of real estate purchases by institutional investors.
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