Cash sales accounted for 33.4 percent of total U.S. home sales in December 2015 and 33.9 percent of total national home sales for the full year 2015, according to the latest report from real estate tracking firm CoreLogic.

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The cash sales share of overall real estate activity in Fresno was down for the month of December over the same period last year and sits at 25.1 percent, a 1.2 percentage point decrease compared with December 2014.

The full year 2015 U.S. cash sales share was the lowest since 2008 and the December cash sales share also was down 3.3 percent year-over-year from 36.7 percent reported in December 2014.

Nationally, on a month-over-month basis, the cash sales share fell by 2.8 percentage points in December 2015 compared with November 2015, according to CoreLogic.

The month over month decrease in the cash sales share was larger than normal for the month of December, indicating that the elevated share reported for November, which was attributed to the new federal mortgage rules (TRID), was temporary.

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.

CoreLogic researchers predicted that if the cash sales share continues to fall at the same rate it did in December 2015, the share should hit 25 percent by mid-2017.