Housing
Where Cash Buys Are Hitting the Housing Market Hardest
In cities across the nation, cash-and-carry buyers are still gobbling up houses at foreclosure—and luxury—prices.
Here's the good news for the housing market: The forces driving up prices in metro areas all across the nation may be easing up ever so slightly. Here's the bad news: The middle class still can't afford to buy homes.
Almost 40 percent of all U.S. home sales in the second quarter of 2014 were all-cash purchases, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac.com. Just about 5 percent of home sales were purchased by institutional buyers—companies or entities that bought more than 10 properties over the course of a year. Both of these figures are down from the last quarter, and down still more so from 2012, when housing prices hit their nadir.