Once upon a time, cash sales accounted for half – or more – of the Tri-Cities area single-family existing home sales. Despite the “once upon a time” intro, it’s no fairy tale.

Cash sales accounted for 59.9% of the 2011 annual existing home sales in the three-county Johnson City metro area. They accounted for 45.9% of the existing sales in the four-county Kingsport-Bristol metro area that year.

Since that high point, the market share of cash sales has steadily declined.

Price had a lot to do with the decline. In 2011, the median annual sales price was $145,645. This year it had a high of $269,900 in July and a low of $221,000 in January.

Last month’s cash sales accounted for 31.1% of all sales, down from October’s 34.5% peak month.

The average cash sales was for $326,789, and the most often discount was $9,900.

Bigger discounts nudged the average to $21,995.

The top discount was $136,200 for a Johnson City home that sold for $462,800. The original $625,000 list price was dropped to a final list price of $599,000 before it sold.

Conventional financing has been consistently accounted for almost half of all sales this year. VA loans were the third most common, closely followed by FHA loans.    

 According to the National Association of Realtors estimates, cash sales have steadily increased with the market’s heightened competition and rising interest rates. Buyers who could muster the cash and wanted to sharpen their competitive edge turned to cash in almost 30% of sales nationwide.