The MReport Webcast: Tuesday 3/10/2015

Cash sales made up 35 percent of all home sales in December 2014, according to data released by Corelogic Monday. December marks the 24th consecutive month of declines in year-over-year share numbers, which have fallen each month since January 2013. Because of seasonality, cash sale comparisons are best when looking at year-over-year data. Cash transactions hit their peak in January 2011 when they made up 46.5 percent of total home sales. Before the housing crisis, the cash sale share of total home sales averaged at about 25 percent.

Real estate owned sales increased the most from 2000 to 2014 and had the largest cash sales share in December 2014 at 58.4 percent. Re-sales had the second largest amount of cash sales share, while short sales and newly constructed homes had the smallest amount of cash sales share.  While the percentage of REO sales that were cash transactions remained high, REO transactions made up only 8.8 percent of all sales in December and, therefore, had a small influence on the overall cash sales share.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to make mortgage bankers eligible for overtime pay under federal labor law Monday. The case brought by the Mortgage Bankers Association was to determine whether mortgage loan officers are covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled  to uphold regulation that holds mortgage loan officers under administrative exemption and therefore not eligible for overtime pay. Led by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to reverse that decision.