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All-cash home sales hit record highs
All-cash home buying is surging across the United States, including in Orange County, as lenders tighten mortgage standards, middle-class buyers are sidelined and investors see opportunity.
Nationwide, cash buyers grabbed 33 percent of all used homes sold in February, the National Association of Realtors reported March 21. The figures, based on agent reporting, do not include foreclosure auctions on courthouse steps, which are usually cash-only.
In Orange County and California real estate, DataQuick Information Systems reports similar trends based on county recordings that do not show any purchase loan.
Cash-only sales have more than doubled in Orange County, from a monthly average of 10.4 percent in the past 23 years to a monthly average of 24 percent in the past 12 months, DataQuick statistics show. In January, all-cash sales hit 28.3 percent in the county – the highest for any month since DataQuick started tracking the figure in 1988.
In Irvine, 31.6 percent of the 393 homes sold so far this year were paid for in cash, real estate broker Cathy Haney said. The average sales price of the all-cash deals this year was $657,854, while the median price for all the Irvine homes sold was $535,000, she said.
Across California, mortgage-less home purchases have doubled from an average 14.7 percent in the past 23 years to 28.3 percent in the past 12 months, according to DataQuick. Cash deals hit 32.9 percent in February, the highest for any month since at least 1988.
"You're seeing an increase in cash deals at both ends of the price distribution curve," said Sam Khater, chief economist for CoreLogic Inc., a real estate information company. "You're seeing it in the hardest hit areas, where investors are coming in and picking up low-priced properties. And you're seeing higher cash activity at the upper end as well."
The "lion's share" of all-cash purchases nationwide are from investors, according to Walter Molony, a spokesman for National Association of Realtors. Real estate investors seek rental income, long-term appreciation or a quick profit.
