ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, today released its first-quarter 2022 U.S. Home Sales Report. Data showed that nationwide, buyers using Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans comprised only 7.3 percent of all single-family home purchases in the first quarter of 2022 (one of every 14), the lowest portion since the first quarter of 2008. The latest figure was down from 8.2 percent in the previous quarter and from 9.2 percent a year earlier.
Among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000 and sufficient FHA-buyer data, those with the highest levels of FHA buyers in the first quarter of 2022 included Visalia. CA (17.7 percent); Bakersfield, CA (16.7 percent); Shreveport, LA (16.3 percent); Mobile, AL (15.9 percent) and Yuma, A (15.7 percent).
Cash sales at seven-year high
Nationwide, all-cash purchases accounted for 34.2 percent of all single-family home sales in the first quarter of 2022, the highest level since the first quarter of 2015. The first-quarter 2022 number was up from 32 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 and from 30.3 percent in the first quarter of last year.
Among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000 and sufficient cash-sales data, those where cash sales represented the largest share all transactions in the first quarter of 2022 included Flint, MI (61.8 percent of all sales); Detroit, MI (61.5 percent); Utica, NY (54.8 percent); Naples, FL (54.4 percent) and Ann Arbor, MI (53 percent).
Those where cash sales represented the smallest share of all transactions in the first quarter of 2022 included Kennewick, WA (17.2 percent of all sales); Augusta, GA (17.9 percent); Lincoln, NE (18.1 percent); Washington, DC (19.4 percent) and San Jose, CA (19.4 percent).
Institutional investment down by more than half
Institutional investors nationwide accounted for just 4.1 percent, or one of every 24 all single-family home purchases in the first quarter of 2022 – less than half the 9.1 percent level in the fourth quarter of 2021. The latest figure also was down from 5.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021.
“For those people who still believe the theory that institutional investors are buying up all the available inventory, the numbers in our Q1 2022 report offer a pretty strong rebuttal,” Sharga added. “It’s also interesting that cash sales – often attributed to institutional investors – continued to increase even as investor activity diminished.”
Among states with enough data to analyze, those with the largest percentages of sales to institutional investors in the first quarter of 2022 were Arizona (10.7 percent of all sales), Georgia (9.3 percent), North Carolina (8.7 percent), Nevada (8.4 percent) and Texas (6.1 percent).
States with the smallest levels of sales to institutional investors in the first quarter of 2022 included Louisiana (0.5 percent), Connecticut (0.5 percent), Hawaii (0.6 percent), New York (0.7 percent) and Massachusetts (0.7 percent).
