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Housing: Increase in Cash Buyers

By Anonymous

From Mitra Kalita at the WSJ: Cash Buyers Lift Housing

Cash buyers represented more than half of all transactions in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area last year ... In the fourth quarter of 2006, they represented just 13% of deals.
...
The percentage of buyers in Phoenix paying cash hit 42% in 2010?more than triple the rate in 2008 ... Nationally, 28% of sales were all-cash transactions last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The rate was 14% in October 2008 ...

This is a quite an increase in cash buyers. Most of the cash transactions are at the low end - and are frequently investors - although the article mentioned one buyer paying cash for $1+ million properties.

The good news is these buyers won't ever have negative equity!

Note: The MBA mortgage index is suggesting weak home sales over the next couple of months, but obviously that index doesn't capture this increase in cash buyers.

Full post as published by Calculated Risk on February 07, 2011 (boomark / email).