REO Cash Sales Share Hovers Near 60 Percent

The cash sales share for REO properties was little changed from January to February, falling only slightly from 60 percent to 59.8 percent, according to CoreLogic's February 2015 cash sales report released Wednesday.
The REO cash sales share percentage of 59.8 for February still has not completely recovered from what was termed a seasonal decline from November to December, when fell from 61.1 percent to 58.4 percent, though it did move back up to 60 percent for January.
As has historically been the case, REO sales had the largest cash sales share in February, followed by resales (37.6 percent), short sales (34.3 percent), and new home sales (15.8 percent).
Though the cash sales share for REO remained near 60 percent, the percentage of total home sales that were REO sales fell slightly from January to February from 9.9 percent down to 9.7 percent. In January 2011 at the height of the foreclosure wave, when cash sales reached their peak, REO sales made up 23.9 percent of all home sales. Resales, which comprise about 80 percent of cash sales, have the most weight on the overall share of cash sales.
In all, cash sales accounted for 37.9 percent of all home sales in February 2015, down from 40.6 percent the previous February; the peak occurred in January 2011 when cash transactions comprised about 46.5 percent of all home sales. February 2015 was the 26th consecutive month (since January 2013) for year-over-year declines in cash sales as a percentage of total home sales. If the decline continues at its current rate, the share of cash sales as a percentage of all home sales should fall below 25 percent by mid-2018, according to CoreLogic.