Cash deals in Miami-Dade fall sharply during March: report

Once the country’s capital of cash sales, the share of home sales in Miami-Dade County has fallen significantly in recent months.

March proved to be no different, according to a new report from research firm CoreLogic, with the county’s ratio of cash sales falling sharply year-over-year.

Of all Miami-Dade’s home sales in March, 51.4 percent of them were made without financing. Compared to March 2015, that rate has fallen by about 7.4 percent, according to the report.

Recent months have seen that rate steadily fall as the county’s inventory of distressed properties — which are mainly purchased in cash — is steadily emptied.

And yet, Miami-Dade was still the nation’s fourth-biggest hot spot for cash deals during March. Philadelphia had the highest share with 55.7 percent, followed by Palm Beach County with 54.4 percent, Fort Myers with 52.6 percent and Sarasota with 51.6 percent.

One main reason for that is because resales, which make up the largest part of Miami-Dade’s housing market, still had a strong showing of cash deals.

Resales accounted for roughly 80 percent of home sales in March, of which 32.9 percent were done without financing. And while 57.2 percent of all distressed properties sold in March were paid for with cash, they only made up 6.8 percent of the housing market’s activity as a whole.

On the flipside, Syracuse in New York took became the nation’s most leveraged housing market in March. A total of 88.3 percent of all homes sold in Syracuse that month were bought with a mortgage. — Sean Stewart-Muniz