All-cash home sales drop

All-cash residential sales in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton region slipped slightly in September vs. the same month in 2015, while distressed transactions fell to their lowest point since last decade's housing boom.

Cash deals accounted for 42.3% of all residential deals in the region in September, a 5.7% drop from the same period a year ago, according to real estate research firm CoreLogic. By comparison, cash sales nationwide were 31.7%.

Florida ranked fourth in the percentage of all-cash deals in September, behind Alabama, at 47.6%, West Virginia and New York. Cash deals peaked in January 2011, CoreLogic notes, at 46.6% of all home sales.

Traditionally, cash deals account for one quarter of all home sales. CoreLogic predicts that the percentage of cash deals will drop to historic levels by mid-2019.

At the same time, distressed sales — defined as real estate-owned transactions and short sales, in which a lender agrees to accept less than the face value of an outstanding mortgage — comprised 7.3% of all transactions, the lowest level since September 2007, CoreLogic says.

Conversely, distressed sales peaked at 32.4% in January 2009, during the longest and deepest economic recession in seven decades.

Nationwide, real estate-owned transactions also fell to their lowest point since August 2007, and dropped 2.8% in September from a year ago.