In a high-cost housing market where speed and certainty win deals, cash buyers are rewriting the rules.
Though down slightly from 2024, one-third of home sales in the first half of 2025 were all-cash transactions, according to a new report from Realtor.com.
Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale described the influence of cash buyers in the current market as “more pronounced today than in pre-pandemic years,” when the average share of all-cash transactions was 28.6%.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid home price appreciation and tight competition for a dwindling number of listings caused a surge in cash transactions, fueling bidding wars and the waiving of inspections to close deals quickly.
“High-wealth buyers, investors and those with significant equity can move quickly and often win out in competitive situations,” said Hale. “For traditional, mortgage-reliant buyers, this can add another hurdle in an already challenging affordability environment.”
The prevalence of cash rises at the market’s extremities. In the first half of 2025, two-thirds of homes priced below $100,000 and more than 40% of homes priced above $1 million were bought with cash. The share topped 50% for homes priced above $2 million.
According to Realtor.com, that pattern likely reflects the impact of investor activity and fewer low-balance mortgage options for financing less expensive homes, as well as the impact of wealth concentration for more expensive homes.
Cash remains a competitive advantage in an environment of higher borrowing costs for financed homebuyers, but that could shift if mortgage rates continue to decline.
First-time homebuyers are disproportionately impacted by steep monthly housing costs and lack access to home equity that investor buyers and older households can easily deploy. High-wealth buyers, meanwhile, are more likely to purchase with cash or financing based on broader financial considerations.
The concentrations of all-cash transactions around the U.S. reflect these split dynamics.
Mississippi (49.6%), Montana (46%), Idaho (45%), Hawaii (44.9%) and Maine (44.4%) topped the list of states with the highest share of all-cash transactions in the first half of 2025. The high share of cash sales In Mississippi reflects the state’s “lower home prices and more limited access to credit in some rural areas,” per the Realtor.com report.
Hawaii and Maine, by contrast, attract affluent second-home buyers, many of them equity-rich and older, according to the report. Montana and Idaho have seen elevated levels of out-of-state buyers compete for homes.
Among metros, Miami (43%), San Antonio (39.6%), Kansas City (39.2%), Birmingham, Ala. (38.8%), Houston (38.8%) and St. Louis (38.1%) led the U.S. in share of cash transactions in the first half of 2025. Younger, high-cost, job-centered markets such as Seattle (17.9%), San Jose (20.6%), Denver (20.7%) and Washington, D.C. (21.5%) had much fewer.
The largest increases in cash transactions were seen in West Virginia (5.3% gain), New Mexico (4%), Texas (2.8%) and New York (2%), “fueled by low-price investor activity, in-migration of wealthier households, and rebounding luxury demand,” reported Realtor.com.
