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REO sales posted the largest residential cash home sales share in November 2014 with more than 60 percent, according to CoreLogic's new cash sales data released on Wednesday.
In November 2014, 61.1 percent of all REO properties sold were cash sales, according to CoreLogic. Re-sales had the next highest share at 35.2 percent, followed by short sales at 32.7 percent. About 16.3 percent of newly constructed home sales were cash sales in November, CoreLogic reported.
While the percentage of REO properties that were cash sales was high for November, REO sales accounted for just 10 percent of cash sales during the month – less than half of the peak percentage of 23.9 percent achieved in January 2011 at the height of the foreclosure wave.
Overall cash sales continued their year-over-year decline in November despite inching upward from October, according to CoreLogic. Cash sales made up 36.1 percent of total home sales in November, down from 38.8 percent a year prior. The drop marks the 23rd straight month of year-over-year declines.
Compared to October, the cash sales share was up about half a percentage point, "as is typical for the fall and winter months," said Molly Boesel, senior economist at CoreLogic. Due to the housing market's seasonality, Boesel says cash sales share comparisons are more revealing on a year-over-year basis.
Despite continually falling for nearly two straight years, the share of cash sales still remains elevated from their pre-crisis norm by more than 10 percentage points. In its last estimate, CoreLogic predicted the cash sales share would decline back to those levels in 2017.
