Nearly half of all home sales all-cash deals

[pinkytoe]

I find this an incredible statistic; sounds like many are foreign buyers:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/08/real...html?iid=HP_LN
In our neighborhood, it is mostly people buying second homes, ie wealthy people who have homes in several locales or transplants who have moved from places that were more expensive.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I have heard this too is true in Arizona. More and more people are having a hard time qualifying for mortgages and here anyway, wealthy Canadians are swooping down to buy investment properties. Often in cash. This boggles my mind but so it is. Rob

[tetrimbath]

There was also a report out that in some cities many of the all-cash deals were investors/corporations buying up houses to turn into rentals or as speculation.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yea but I've heard even the investors are starting to flee now (they were buying but less so): so another bubble going pop?

[CathyA]

I just saw a sign yesterday that was for a home loan with no money down. Are we headed into the past again?

[dmc]

I'm closing on my house on Monday. The buyer didn't seem to have any problem getting a loan. I did have a cash offer, but I had already made a deal with the first guy. The cash buyer was a local, he owns the marina here.

I'll probably be paying cash for my next house, it just depends on how I feel at the time.

And hopefully the banks have made it a little harder to get a loan. Like actually check and see if the people getting the loans can actually pay them back.

[dmc]

There was also a report out that in some cities many of the all-cash deals were investors/corporations buying up houses to turn into rentals or as speculation.

Looks like they may have made a good investment. Most markets have risen in the last couple of years. I could have bought a house in the area that we are moving to two years ago for quite a bit less than I'll have to pay now.

[awakenedsoul]

Interesting article. I know a couple of retired women who own two or three rental properties a piece. They own them outright, and they live off of the income. I'd like to do the same someday. The whole thing is, timing the market so that you can buy low and hold. I guess if I can keep my expenses low, I won't need to buy another property. It's a lot of responsibility.

[Lainey]

When you said "live off the income" it reminded me of a news story years ago. An older widow was the owner of a small rental house. She too need that rental income to live on, but unfortunately, she either did not or could not put aside any of that money over the years for maintenance.
As a result, the rental house fell into disrepair bad enough for the city to get involved. She was on the TV news complaining that she needed all of the rent for her own needs, so how was she supposed to make the needed repairs?

Moral of the story - and I'm not saying this is in any way related to the women you know - is that landlords need to be responsible and not just use these rental places for their cash flow without considering building maintenance.

[RosieTR]

The entity that bought our house in AZ was a cash buyer. And jerked us around, too. Felt like we got screwed by the wealthy but also the down-and-out, since the renters did damage and then either they or their meth head friends came back and did more. I can't even try to care what happened to the house or neighborhood. Most of the neighbors we knew in the few years we were there foreclosed and left anyway, so any feeling I might ever have (and only when I'm reminded by a story about the housing market) is pretty much flat-out relief not to be involved at all any more.
If investors speculate and lose their shirts again I won't be very sympathetic, but I will be angry if I have to contribute to bail them out again. I'm getting more "get a home equity loan!" flyers in the mail so maybe the bubble is starting to foam up?