SoFla cash deals down, distressed sales up in July

South Florida was surpassed by the rest of Florida for cash deals during July, while distressed sales jumped up slightly, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach metropolitan areas reported a 0.9 percent increase in foreclosure sales last month. Out of all homes sold in those markets in July, 10.6 percent of them were in foreclosure, up from 9.7 percent in June.

Meanwhile, cash sales in the area continued their steady decline. The Miami metropolitan area, once the king of the country’s cash sales, fell to eighth place in July with 47.6 percent of its home sales represented by cash deals.

The top nine cities for cash sales were all in Florida, with the Sebastian metropolitan area in the lead at 54.6 percent, according to the report.

From January to June, a total of 48,038 single-family homes and condos were sold in the Miami metropolitan area. That makes up roughly 3.5 percent of the nation’s 1,344,129 housing units sold so far this year.

Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac

Nationally, both cash and distressed sales were down during July. The country saw 22.6 percent of its home sales represented by cash deals, and 6.4 percent of them were in some stage of foreclosure. Those figures fell 0.9 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

“While the stock market may be on a roller coaster as of late, the housing market is still on solid ground, with the eight-year low in cash sales combined with the eight-year high in overall sales volume in the first half of the year evidence that housing is successfully transitioning from an investor-driven recovery to one that is drawing in traditional buyers as a good foundation for sustainable growth going forward,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, wrote in the report.

“That’s not to say there are no cracks in the foundation of this recovery,” he added, “the top three of which are housing affordability — or lack thereof in some high-flying markets — along with overdependence on capricious cash buyers — both foreign and domestic — in some markets and the persistent overhang of underwater homeowners who continue to represent heightened default risk given any future economic shockwaves.”