This month CoreLogic has combined their cash sales and distressed sales data into a single report rather than the two they have issued each month since early in the housing crisis.  The data released on Wednesday covers July.

Distressed sales accounted for 7.2 percent of all sales nationally during the month.  Sales of lender owned real estate (REO) accounted for 4.3 percent of total sales and short sales 2.9 percent.  It was the lowest share garnered by REO since July 2007 and the overall distressed share was the lowest since that September.

At its peak in January 2009, distressed sales totaled 32.4 percent of all sales with REO sales representing 27.9 percent of that share. The pre-crisis share of distressed sales was traditionally about 2 percent. If the current year-over-year decrease in the distressed sales share continues, it will reach that "normal" 2-percent mark in mid-2018.

The distressed share of sales fell on a year-over-year basis in all but eight states.  Maryland had the largest share of these sales at 19.4 percent, followed by Connecticut (18.6 percent), Michigan (17.8 percent), New Jersey (15.6 percent) and Illinois (15.5 percent).  

The share of all-cash home sales was 29.7 percent in July, down 1.9 percentage points from July 2015. REO sales had the largest share of cash transactions at 57.6 percent while 29.4 percent of resales were for cash.  Short sales had a 28.1 percent share and newly constructed homes came in at 15 percent.

The cash sales share peaked in January 2011 when cash transactions accounted for 46.6 percent of total home sales nationally. Prior to the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. If the cash sales share continues to fall at the same rate it did in July 2016, the share should hit 25 percent by mid-2018.

New York had the largest cash sales share of any state in July at 44.6 percent, followed by Alabama (43.6 percent), Florida (39.6 percent), New Jersey (37.3 percent) and Indiana (37 percent).