Home cash sales drop

Cash sales in the national housing market declined again in March.

Overall, 34.6 percent of the housing sales during the third month of the year were cash transactions, down from 39 percent in March 2014, according to a report released Thursday by CoreLogic in Irvine.

The year-over-year percentage of cash-related home sales has now fallen for 27 consecutive months dating back to January 2013.

Month-over-month, cash sales dropped 2.8 percent in March.

Cash sales peaked in January 2011 when they made up 46.5 percent of all home sales nationally. Before the housing crisis began, cash sales averaged about one-fourth of all home sales.

At the current rate of decline, national cash sales should return to 25 percent by the middle of next year, the CoreLogic report stated.