Cash sales made up 33.8 percent of total home sales in August 2014, down from 36.4 percent in August 2013, according to a new report from real estate data and analytics provider CoreLogic. The year-over-year share has fallen each month since January 2013.

The cash sales share ticked up by less than one percentage point compared with July. However, CoreLogic warned, cash sales share comparisons should be made on a year-over-year basis due to the seasonal nature of the housing market.

Prior to the housing crisis, the cash sales share of total home sales averaged approximately 25 percent. The peak occurred in January 2011, when cash transactions made up 46.3 percent of total home sales.

More than half of all real estate owned (REO) sales in August (56.9 percent) were all cash. More than a third of existing home sales (33.4 percent) were also all cash, along with 31.8 percent of short sales and 16.5 percent of newly constructed home sales. REO transactions made up only 7.2 percent of total sales in August and, therefore, did not have a large influence on the overall cash sales share. In January 2011, when the cash sales share was at its peak, REO sales made up 23.9 percent of total sales.

According to CoreLogic, the percentage of existing home sales that are all cash is an important indicator of market trends. That number has fallen almost 14 percentage points from its peak cash share of 47.2 percent in February 2011. This category will determine the direction of cash sales going forward, the report suggested, since the vast majority of home sales, more than 80 percent, are of existing homes.

In August, Florida had the largest cash sales share of any state at 49.8 percent, followed by Alabama (48.9 percent), West Virginia (45 percent), New York (44.4 percent) and Delaware (44 percent). In Massachusetts, 24 percent of all sales were cash sales.