RealtyTrac: Distressed Sales, Cash Sales Drop In June

(RTTNews) - Housing data provider RealtyTrac Thursday said distressed sales, cash sales and institutional investor sales in June were all down from a year ago to multi-year lows even as sales to first-time homebuyers and other buyers using Federal Housing Administration or FHA loans increased.

All-cash buyers accounted for 22.9 percent of all single family home and condo sales in June, down from 24.7 percent of all sales in the previous month and down from 29.1 percent of all sales in June 2014.

Institutional investors, or entities purchasing at least 10 properties during a calendar year, accounted for 1.7 percent of all single family and condo sales in June, the same as in May but down from 3.5 percent of all sales from June 2014.

RealtyTrac's June and Midyear 2015 U.S. Home Sales Report released today showed buyers using FHA loans accounted for 23 percent of all single family home and condo sales with financing in the second quarter of 2015. This was up from 20 percent in the first quarter and up from 19 percent in the second quarter of 2014 to the highest share since the first quarter of 2013.

The report also shows 914,291 single family and condo sales through April 2015 at the highest level through the first four months of a year since 2006.

"As the investor-driven housing recovery faded in the first half of 2015, first-time homebuyers, boomerang buyers and other traditional owner-occupant buyers started to step into the gap and pick up the slack," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.