Nationwide, all-cash purchases accounted for 36.6% of single-family home and condo sales in the third quarter, up slightly from 36.4% in the second quarter, according to ATTOM’s U.S. Home Sales Report.
“The level of cash sales has inched up over the past year as mortgage rates in the U.S. have continued their march higher, now close to an average of 8 percent for a 30-year loan,” says Rob Barber, CEO for ATTOM, in the report. “If rates keep rising, that should continue creating favorable conditions for more all-cash deals.”
Among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more and sufficient cash-sales data, those where cash sales represented the largest share of all transactions in the third quarter of 2023 included Athens, Ga. (63.3%); Myrtle Beach, S.C. (60% of all sales); Macon, Ga. (58.9%); Claremont, N.H. (56.8%) and Naples, Fla. (56%).
Metros where cash sales represented the smallest share of all transactions in the third quarter of 2023 included Greeley, Colo. (16.3%); Boulder, Colo. (19.7%); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (21.6%); Washington, D.C. (21.7%) and Vallejo, Calif. (21.7%).
Institutional investors nationwide accounted for 5.9%, or one of every 17 single-family home and condo purchases in the third quarter – down from 6.2% in the second quarter and down from 7.6% in the third quarter of 2022, to the lowest point since the fourth quarter of 2020.
Among states with enough data to analyze, those with the largest percdentages of sales to institutional investors were Oklahoma (8.8% of all sales), Tennessee (8.7%), Texas (8.4%), Georgia (8%) and Indiana (7.9%).
States with the smallest levels of sales to institutional investors in the third quarter of 2023 included Hawaii (1.9% of all sales), Rhode Island 2.9%), Maine (3%), New Hampshire (3%) and Louisiana (3.2%).
Photo: Pepi Stojanovski