About 30 Percent of DC Sales All Cash, Data Show

• May 8, 2014

by Lark Turner

Data from real estate research company RealtyTrac show all-cash residential sales in DC are up significantly year-over-year in the first quarter of 2014.

In the first quarter of 2013, all-cash sales represented 15 percent of the total sales in the District proper. That rose to 21.3 percent by the fourth quarter of 2013, and 28.8 percent in the first quarter of 2014. That’s a year-over-year increase of 13.8 percent.

RealtyTrac, which released the data on Thursday, calculates all-cash sales based on whether a loan is recorded at the time of sale.

The company also recorded a 52 percent drop in institutional investor purchases in the DC metro area. The data on cash sales refer to DC proper, so the two data points are not comparable.

Also on Thursday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported a rise in all-cash purchases and a decline of institutional investment. Those two trends usually move in tandem, because institutional investors like to pay cash for homes. Lawrence Yun, a chief economist for NAR, said in a news release that the shift indicates changes in the market, including factors like greater foreign investment.

“The restrictive mortgage lending standards are a factor, but the higher levels of cash sales may also come from the aging of the baby boom generation, with more trade-down and retirement buyers paying cash with decades of equity accumulation,” Yun said.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/about_30_percent_of_dc_sales_are_all_cash_data_show/8463