CoreLogic: Miami Reigns As Cash King

Real estate markets across the country continued hemorrhaging cash last October, a new report from CoreLogic confirmed, with the share of total sales falling 2.6 percentage points year-over-year. However, as is typical of the season, the amount of cash in the market ticked slightly up from September.

It’s been a five-year tumble for cash sales, which peaked in Jan. 2011 when they accounted for 46.6 percent of total home sales nationally. According to CoreLogic’s latest figures, in October that share was down to 36.4 percent.

Nationally, the number of all cash transactions in the market still eclipses the healthy, 25 percent standard set in the years leading up to the 2007 downturn. It’s unlikely that the U.S.’s total share of cash sales will recede into “normal” waters before mid-2018 – which is when researchers predict the share will reach 25 percent – but on a more micro level, some markets have already broken that threshold (others are even further from it).

Miami is one of those “further from it” cities, claiming the national “king of cash” title once again in October with a 51.6 percent cash sales share – even after falling 5.5 percentage points year-over-year. The significance of cash in the Magic City has waned since the recession, but that decline has been more stagnation in recent years. As an international hub, Miami plays host to buyers and investors from all over the world who tend to prefer making purchases in all cash. However, with the Treasury Department’s recent decision to increase scrutiny on cash sales topping $1 million in the city, we could see that number taper off further into 2016.