Florida real estate sales: All about the Benjamins

Florida, statewide and within individual metro areas, is a national leader in homes sales paid in cash, according to a new report from real estate data firm CoreLogic.

The Sunshine State had the largest share of cash sales in the country in April, at 51.4%, the report shows. Alabama, West Virginia, New York and Kentucky followed Florida.

In terms of individual areas, four of the five top cash-strong regions nationwide are in Florida. The region with the highest share of cash sales, at 59.1%, is West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach. The North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton region, at 58.5%, is next and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, at 58.1% is in third place. The Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, Mich. region, at 58%, is after Cape Coral-Fort Myers, followed by Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, at 56.9%. Syracuse, N.Y. had the lowest cash sales share, according to CoreLogic, at 11%

While the rates of cash sales are high in Florida, the growth rate in the metric in some areas, and nationally, is on the decline. Cash sales in North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton in April, for example, dropped 6.3 percentage points from April 2014. And cash sales in Cape Coral-Fort Myers dropped 8.3 percentage points from April 2014

Cash sales accounted for 33.7% of total home sales nationwide in April, the report shows, down from 37.4% in April 2014. The year-over-year share has fallen each month since January 2013, the report adds.