While the share of residential real estate transactions that are all cash continues to decline they remain well above historic levels CoreLogic said on Wednesday.  In May 34.4 percent of home purchases were in cash, down from 36.9 percent in April and 37.4 percent in May 2013.  The May share was the lowest inn four years.   Before the housing crisis such sales typically accounted for 25 percent of the market.

CoreLogic said that share comparisons should be made on a year-over-year basis because of the seasonal nature of the housing market.  That measure has fallen every month since January 2013.  The peak share of cash sales, 46.2 percent of the total, occurred in January 2011.

Sales of lender-owned property (REO) commanded the largest share of cash sales, 55.5 percent in May, followed by re-sales at 34 percent, short sales (32.8 percent) and newly constructed homes (16.8 percent.)  While REO sales made up 24 percent of all home sales when cash sales peaked in January 2011, they made up only 8.2 percent of the total in May.  Thus the high percentage of REO cash sales had little impact on overall numbers.   

Florida had the largest share of cash sales of any state at 53.4 percent, followed by New York (50.3 percent), Alabama (48.9 percent), West Virginia (48.3 percent) and South Dakota (46.3 percent). Of the nation's largest 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, Nassau County-Suffolk County, N.Y. had the highest share of cash sales at 66.4 percent, followed by Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (64 percent), West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, Fla. (62.8 percent), North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla. (62.7 percent) and Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.(61.1 percent).