Nearly one-third (32.6 percent) of home purchases were made in cash in 2024, down from 35.1 percent the year before and the lowest share since 2021, according to a new report from Redfin. All-cash sales made up a bigger piece of the homebuying pie than before the pandemic, when the share ranged from 25 percent to 30 percent.
Redfin’s report is based on its analysis of county-level home purchase records across 40 of the most populous metropolitan areas going back through 2014. Redfin defines an all-cash purchase as a home purchase with no mortgage loan information on the deed.
One reason the share of cash purchases fell was because investors—who make up a significant proportion of all-cash buyers—bought fewer homes than they did during the past few years, according to Redfin
“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,” Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in a release. “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.”
The number of all-cash home sales dropped to its lowest level in at least a decade in 2024 as total home sales fell to historic lows, according to Redfin.
Of the metros analyzed by Redfin, Florida metros had the highest share of cash homebuyers. First came West Palm Beach, where 49.6 percent of home purchases were made in cash in 2024. Next came Jacksonville, Fla. (40.6 percent), Cleveland (40 percent), Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (38.9 percent) and Miami (38.1 percent). While the percentage of cash sales remained high, all of those metros saw their share fall in 2024.
Expensive coastal metros had the lowest share of all-cash buyers, led by San Jose, Calif., where only 18.1 percent of home purchases were made in cash. Next came Oakland, Calif. (18.6 percent), Seattle (20.6 percent), Virginia Beach, Va. (21.9 percent) and Los Angeles (22.2 percent).
The share of all-cash purchases increased most from a year earlier in Pittsburgh (up 2.1 percentage points), followed by Oakland (up 1 percentage point) and New York (up 1 percentage point). Cleveland (-8.3 percentage points), Baltimore (-6.8 percentage points) and Jacksonville (-6.4 percentage points) saw the share of cash purchases fall most.