Investors Purchasing Larger Share of Homes

Irvine, CA, Oct. 24, 2013 -- All-cash purchases nationwide represented 49% of all home sales in September, up from a revised 40% in August and up from 30% in September 2012, according to tracking firm RealtyTrac.

U.S. residential properties, including single family homes, condominiums and townhomes, sold at an estimated annualized pace of 5,673,249 in September, up 2% from August and up 14% from September 2012, according to tracking firm RealtyTrac.

The national median sales price of all residential properties -- including both distressed and non-distressed -- in September was $174,000, up 1% from a revised $172,000 median price in August and up 6% from a $164,500 median price in September 2012.

The median price of a distressed residential property -- in foreclosure or bank-owned -- in September was $112,000, 41% below the median price of $189,000 for a non-distressed residential property.

Distressed sales combined accounted for 25% of all sales in September, up from 18% of all sales a year ago.

"The housing market continues to skew in favor of investors, particularly deep-pocketed institutional investors, and other buyers paying with cash," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

"While the institutional investors are pulling back their purchases in many of the higher-priced markets -- places like San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York, Seattle and Sacramento -- they are continuing to ramp up purchases in markets where median prices are still below $200,000 -- places like Jacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, St. Louis and Dallas."

Institutional investors (purchasing 10 or more properties in the last 12 months) accounted for 14% of all sales in September, up from 9% in August and also 9% in September 2012. September had the highest%age of institutional investor purchases of any month since RealtyTrac began tracking in January 2011.