The Blubber

Per Bloomberg

The number of buyers in the US that prefer to pay in cash has increased to higher levels, closer to its 2013 numbers. Per Attom, a real estate data analytics firm, there was a retreat in institutional buyers and more regular buyers trying to avoid mortgage rates by paying in cash.

Redfin Corp. realtor Heather Kruyai gave a statement regarding the cash buying situation. Kruayai was a realtor in Jacksonville, Florida, where they had less than half the Californian median home price.

Kruyai: “It’s mostly people retiring, or people who have sold something in other parts of the country and made a lot of money off of it and are able to pick up something here for cash,”

Another Redfin realtor, Jasmine Harris, said that some people would sell their California home for half a million dollars. After that, she would see those people buy $400,000 properties in Atlanta.

Harris: “They’re able to participate in a cash game that normally they would not have been able to,”

Some cities, like Augusta, Georgia, topped other cities, with 72% of buyers paying in cash. It was noted that most of the 13 cities in the Southeast saw cash buyers at above 50%.

Bob Barber, Attom CEO, gave a statement on how the cash sales in Augusta could be due to the improvement of the home-flipping market.

Barber: “The large cash-sales levels in the Augusta metro could be connected, at least partly, to a relatively good home-flipping market,”

In October 2022, Wall Street economists said they expect real estate prices to fall as high as 20% this year. This was as mortgage rates climbed and the housing market started normalizing in the wake of the pandemic.

In the second half of last year, the US housing market dropped by $2.3 trillion, which was just 0.9% shy of the housing crisis decline of 2008.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• U.S. home prices could fall as much as 20% next year
• US housing market dropped by $2.3 trillion in the 2nd half of 2022, just 0.9% less than the 2008 housing crisis decline

Resources:

Bloomberg