The volume of all cash home sales is on the rise in the District of Columbia, with competition and outside buyers driving the uptick.
According to data from RealtyTrac, last year 24.3 percent of all district home sales were cash deals, the highest percentage achieved in more than ten years.
“With a location like the district it’s going to attract not just regular buyers but buyers from the outside,” said Daren Blomquist, VP of RealtyTrac, adding these often wealthy buyers are not constrained by local market conditions and can utilize cash as a way to beat out competition.
All-cash deals have been more prevalent in the condo-townhouse market, accounting for 26 percent of all transactions last year.
The most active cash condo purchasers in the district are institutional and corporate buyers. BDC Skyhouse East LLC purchased 240 condos via all cash last year, according to RealtyTrac. Another LLC and Cartus Financial Corp. purchased 18 and 14 condos, respectively, with cash.
In the single-family market, cash deals accounted for 18 percent of all transactions last year.
Overall, Blomquist notes that a significant spike in the volume of cash deals within the district occurred last November, when they accounted for 41 percent of all monthly home transactions. He attributes the uptick to the implementation of the new TRID rules.
DC metro all cash sales declining
The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro saw cash deals account for a smaller percentage of all transactions last year, 20.3 percent, than the district.
The roughly 20 percent figure represented the lowest percentage of cash deals in the metro since 2008.
Both the district’s and DC metro’s cash deal percentages trailed the national average last year. RealtyTrac found that all cash buyers accounted for 30.1 percent of all U.S. homes sales, the lowest level since 2008.
Of the markets nationally with a population exceeding one million, cash deals were most prevalent last year in Miami (55.2 percent of all home sales), Tampa (48.5 percent), Orlando (44.5 percent), Memphis (44.2 percent) and Jacksonville (42.4 percent).
