According to the National Association of REALTORS® 2017 REALTORS® Confidence Index, cash sales made up 22 percent of home sales nationally in 2017 (this number was up compared to the 21 percent in 2016).
How does our local market compare? I pulled all home sales from 2017 and found that of the 6,818 houses (excluding condos) purchased in Reno-Sparks, 1,239 were cash sales (as opposed to financed) — or 18.2 percent.
Volume-wise those cash sales accounted for 20.9 percent of 2017’s sales volume.
But looking back over the past few years (since the market bottomed in 2012), the proportion of cash sales has been trending downward.
| Year | Cash | Conventional | FHA | VA | Other | Total Houses Sold |
| 2017 | 18.2% | 54.8% | 16.9% | 8.9% | 1.2% | 6,818 |
| 2016 | 18.6% | 49.9% | 21.3% | 8.4% | 1.9% | 6,583 |
| 2015 | 19.0% | 49.4% | 21.5% | 8.3% | 1.8% | 6,326 |
| 2014 | 23.0% | 46.2% | 20.7% | 8.5% | 1.6% | 5,972 |
| 2013 | 29.7% | 41.7% | 20.2% | 6.3% | 2.1% | 6,084 |
| 2012 | 27.8% | 37.4% | 26.4% | 6.1% | 2.3% | 6,099 |
The table above shows the proportions of home purchases made by cash, and those purchases that were financed (either by conventional, FHA or VA mortgages), by year.
Notice that while cash purchases have been on the decline, conventional mortgage purchases have been on the rise.
This is a continuation of a trend I reported on back in 2014 (See Cash sales trending down – August 25, 2014)
Good news for lenders.
Vale Trujillo
Cash sales look pretty flat to me in recent years. Have a look at this simple visualization, hope you don’t mind!
https://public.tableau.com/views/HomeSales-Cashvs_Conventional/HomeSales-Cashvs_Conventional
Considering the huge jump, what is contained within Other? Is there an error there or are properties being counted in multiple categories?
Guy Johnson
Hello Vale. Thank you for the visualization. I don’t mind at all.
Yes, I agree cash sales have flattened out since 2015.
The category “Other” contains less frequently used financing methods such as: assumption of existing mortgage; contract of sale; owner carry financing; etc. The percentages in each row of the table above should total to 100 percent.
Vale Trujillo
Thanks Guy. For 2017 – 18.2% + 54.8% + 16.9% + 8.9% + 19.2% = 118%
19.2% should be 1.2% I’m guessing?
Guy Johnson
Ah, I now see to what you are referring. Thank you for catching my typo. Much appreciated.
I have now corrected the values in the “Other” column.
2017 Reno Housing Market Recap | Reno Real Estate Blog
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