Massachusetts Home Buyer Guide

Cash sales made up 24 percent of all residential real estate sales in Massachusetts, according to a report by real estate information provider CoreLogic, Banker & Tradesman reported November 13, 2014.  

Nationally, cash sales were 33.8 percent of total home sales in August 2014, down from 36.4 percent in August 2013. The year-over-year percentage has declined each month since January 2013. The cash sales share increased less than one percentage point compared with July 2014, but due to the seasonal nature of the housing market year-over-year comparisons are more useful. 

Prior to the national housing crisis, the share of cash home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. The peak percentage took place in January 2011 when cash transactions accounted for 46.3 percent of total home sales in the United States.

More than half of all real estate owned (REO) sales in August (56.9 percent) were paid for with all cash. More than a third of existing home sales (33.4 percent) were also all cash, along with 31.8 percent of short sales and 16.5 percent of newly constructed home sales. REO transactions made up only 7.2 percent of total sales in August, so REO sales did not have a large impact on the overall share of cash sales. In January 2011, the time cash sales peaked, REO sales totaled 23.9 percent of total sales.

In August, Florida had the largest percentage of cash home sales of any state at 49.8 percent, followed by Alabama (48.9 percent), West Virginia (45 percent), New York (44.4 percent) and Delaware (44 percent).