The cash-fueled housing frenzy is beginning to cool off. In 2024, 32.6% of U.S. home purchases were made with cash, the lowest level in three years, according to a recent Redfin report. That’s a dip from 35.1% in 2023 and the lowest number of all-cash sales in at least a decade. And while Florida is still king when it comes to cash deals, even the Sunshine State saw a slight decline.
Before the pandemic, cash sales hovered between 25% and 30%. When housing madness took over in 2021 and beyond, that number jumped. But now, as the real estate market slumps under the weight of high prices and steep mortgage rates, the all-cash wave is retreating, but only just.
Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari noted, “The rate of all-cash sales remains high because when housing is expensive—like it is now—wealthier Americans who can afford to pay cash are more likely than lower-income Americans to be buying homes.” He added, “We are unlikely to see the share of all-cash purchases fall much lower in 2025, unless mortgage rates drop enough to drive a significant increase in sales.”
Florida remains the epicenter of all-cash deals. In West Palm Beach, nearly half of all home purchases (49.6%) were cash transactions. But even there, the number is slipping—down 1.2 percentage points from 2023. Jacksonville (40.6%), Cleveland (40%), Fort Lauderdale (38.9%), and Miami (38.1%) round out the top five metros for all-cash buys, with all showing declines from the previous year.
Not surprisingly, the most expensive coastal markets are where cash buyers are the scarcest. San Jose leads the pack with only 18.1% of purchases made in cash, followed by Oakland (18.6%), Seattle (20.6%), Virginia Beach (21.9%), and Los Angeles (22.2%).
Pittsburgh saw the biggest jump in cash purchases, up 2.1 percentage points from last year. Meanwhile, Cleveland took the hardest hit, with an 8.3-point drop, followed closely by Baltimore (-6.8 ppts) and Jacksonville (-6.4 ppts).
