Interest rates on mortgages increased over the summer, and lenders are still holding back on loans, but the cause of the surge in all-cash home sales is a cause for concern for the long-term health of the housing market.
A new report by RealtyTrac includes data showing that all-cash purchases accounted for 42.1 percent of all residential sales in the United States in December, up from about 20 percent at the beginning of 2013.
Julia Zhu, reporting the news of the data, quotes Daren Bloomquist, vice president, of RealtyTrac, to discuss the implications of the trend, which is described as a “red flag” for the housing market: “"It's like we put the fate of the housing market in the hands of the wealthy few…Hopefully we can see the number of cash buyers go down. That's what we need to see for long-term recovery."
FULL STORY: An Astonishing Share Of Homebuyers Are Paying All Cash
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