Florida leads nation in cash-only home sales

Florida led the nation last month with what RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist called an “astounding” rate of all-cash home sales: 66 percent.

Institutional investors, foreign buyers, landlords and vacation-home shoppers are fueling a cash-only market where first-time homebuyers’ mortgages can’t compete.

Cash sales made up 57 percent of Florida’s home sales a year ago and 61 percent of all sales in June of this year, compared with the 66 percent reported in July, according to the report released today by Irvine, Calif.-based real estate research company RealtyTrac Inc.

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“That’s astounding,” Daren Blomquist told the Orlando Sentinel.

In South Florida, 69 percent of all home sales were transacted entirely with cash, the report said. [Orlando Sentinel]Emily Schmall