Cash purchases may be subsiding…locally

cash purchases in Reno Sparks NevadaCampbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey reported yesterday that nationwide home purchases relying on cash and no mortgage financing climbed to a 10-month high of 30.1 percent of home sales in February. See All Cash Home Purchases Hit 10-Month High in February

As frequent readers of this blog are aware, cash purchases have been increasing and make up a large proportion of home purchases locally in the Reno and Sparks, Nevada market as well. Here are a couple of my prior posts on the topic…

What does the proportion of cash purchases in the Reno and Sparks market look like today?

I’ve pulled the MLS data this morning and see that, year-to-date, all-cash purchases accounted for 31.7 percent of sales across all property types (e.g. site/stick built houses, condo/townhouses, manufactured/modular, etc.). This number is in line with the results found in the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance survey referenced above. I suspect that survey looked at all property types as well.

However, if I limit my search to only site/stick built houses (i.e. excluding condos, townhomes, manufactured, etc.) that number drops to 24.5 percent. This reduction is to be expected as the price for a house is typically more than the price for a condo or manufactured home.

What is noteworthy though, is that this current proportion of cash purchases is lower than 2013’s proportion (see table below). As can be seen in the table below, the proportion of cash purchases has been increasing for the past seven consecutive years. Could we now be seeing a reversal of this trend?

The year-to-date sales data I pulled comprises less than one full quarter. I will be watching these numbers throughout the year to determine what trend and direction develops.

Stay tuned.

units sold for cash % cash sales
2014* 1,047 257 24.5%
2013 6,077 1,805 29.7%
2012 6,099 1,695 27.8%
2011 5,925 1,553 26.2%
2010 5,359 1,130 21.1%
2009 5,260 919 17.5%
2008 3,591 454 12.6%
2007 3,365 262 7.8%
2006 4,111 248 6.0%
2005 6,072 366 6.0%
2004 5,753 497 8.6%
2003 4,448 452 10.2%
2002 4,909 429 8.7%

* partial year

2 comments

  1. Cash sales trending down | Reno Real Estate Blog

    […] How does our local sales mix compare to these national numbers? In March, I reported that despite rising levels of cash sales nationally; at the local Reno-Sparks level, cash sales in our market appeared to be decreasing (See Cash purchases may be subsiding…locally) […]

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