Cash purchases are waning, as rising inventory and softening home prices offer homebuyers a reprieve from bidding wars and breakneck contract signings.
“Cash buyers aren’t disappearing; they’re simply becoming less dominant as the housing market finds its footing,” Realtor.com Senior Economist Hannah Jones said in a report on Tuesday. “More inventory and moderating prices are giving financed buyers more opportunities to compete. Cash still matters, but today its biggest advantage isn’t just winning bidding wars. It’s also giving sellers confidence that a deal will close quickly and with fewer surprises.”
From January to April, cash purchases accounted for 31.4 percent of all transactions — a 2.8 percent decline from the same period last year. Cash sales are also falling more quickly than total home sales, Realtor.com found, with total home sales declining 8.5 percent year over year, compared to cash sales, which dropped 11.2 percent from 2025.
Hannah Jones
Although cash purchases are moderating nationally, some markets still show cash shares — i.e., the number of all-cash transactions divided by the total number of home sales — on the uptick.
Cash shares increased the most in Pittsburgh (+6.8 pp), Providence, Rhode Island (+3.7 pp), Austin, Texas (+2.7 pp), Dallas (+2.3 pp) and Houston (+1.9 pp) during the first four months of the year. However, San Francisco had the sharpest increase in cash purchases, partially buoyed by artificial intelligence tech workers.
Mississippi (47.2 percent), Montana (45.9 percent), New Mexico (43.8 percent), Missouri (42.0 percent) and Florida (41.3 percent) had the highest cash shares on a state-by-state basis, with retirees, second-home and luxury buyers boosting Florida and Montana’s shares.
On the metro level, Miami (43.2 percent), Kansas City, Missouri (38.9 percent), Houston (38.8 percent), San Antonio (38.7 percent) and St. Louis (37.5 percent) had the highest cash shares, while high-cost job centers like Seattle (16.4 percent), Washington, D.C. (18.2 percent), Denver (18.8 percent) and San Jose, California (20.2 percent), had buyers who were more likely to rely on financing.
Although all-cash offers aren’t the game-changer they were at the peak of the pandemic, Realtor.com said they’re still an important bargaining chip, as sellers look for more certainty in a market that’s tilting away from their favor.
“Cash will remain an important part of housing, particularly at the high and low ends of the market, but a more diverse buyer pool is a positive sign for market activity,” Jones said. “When more buyers can compete using different paths to purchase, the market has the potential to become healthier and more balanced.”
