The City Where People Pay Cash for Houses

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated May 19, 10:21AM EDT · Published Dec 11, 11:09AM EST

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30-year fixed mortgage rates between 6.3% and 6.46% remain elevated compared to pandemic-era lows, reducing housing demand while low inventory continues supporting prices in many markets. Naples, Florida leads U.S. cities with 60% cash sales, followed by Myrtle Beach (53%) and three other Florida markets, as cash buyers gain competitive advantages through faster closings and fewer financing contingencies.
Rising property insurance premiums and HOA fees averaging over $550 monthly have shifted buyer calculations beyond mortgage rates, while the homeownership gap between Baby Boomers and younger generations widens amid national sentiment viewing homeownership as increasingly unrealistic.
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The City Where People Pay Cash for Houses — © Andrey Maximenko / iStock via Getty Images

Many Americans take out mortgages to pay for their homes. Average 30-year fixed mortgage rates currently fluctuate between 6.3% and 6.46%, down slightly from recent highs but still significantly elevated compared to legacy pandemic-era rates. Rising mortgage rates generally reduce demand and put downward pressure on prices.
However, because the U.S. has extremely low housing inventory, prices continued to rise in many markets despite high rates. People with 3% mortgages hold onto their homes because of relatively low monthly payments, lowering the inventory of homes for sale.

Some people get around the mortgage rate problem. In August, about a third of all home sales were cash. Naples, Florida, the major American city where people were most likely to pay cash, had a rate of 60%.

Where Buyers Use Cash

Why cash buyers are drawn to Florida.

Most of the markets where most people pay cash for homes are in Florida. Among the top five, Naples is followed by Northport (53%), Palm Bay (49%), and Cape Coral (48%). Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, (53%) was the only city in the top five that was not in Florida. The data come from Redfin.

At the far end of the list was San Jose, California, where cash buyers comprised 19% of the market. Notably, San Jose is the most expensive housing market in the United States, with a median price of a house of nearly $1.5 million.

Naples has one significant advantage over many other American cities. It ranks high or at the top of many “best places” to live lists. In a recent U.S. News & World Report list, it ranked number one. “Long known as a preferred retirement spot for the rich, powerful and cold-averse, the greater Naples area supplies pristine beaches, sprawling golf courses, and fine dining and shopping,” the magazine reported.

However, the local real estate landscape is experiencing a sharp divergence. While tight inventory keeps single-family home prices steady with modest annual gains of around 2.4%, the Naples condo market has softened significantly, with median prices dipping over 10% due to rising inventory and stricter regulations.

It is open to debate whether income is related to cash buyers. According to the Census Bureau, Naples residents have a median household income of just over $135,000, compared to the national average of about $80,000.

Boomers Are Flocking to These Islands, and You Can Buy a Home on One for Less Than $30K Upfront

The Growing Non-Mortgage Burden for Buyers

Beyond interest rates, property holding costs have become a primary consideration for buyers in the Florida market. Soaring property insurance premiums and spiking HOA fees or special assessments, which now average over $550 per month in many regional communities due to stricter structural reserve requirements, have fundamentally altered the financial math. This shift has prompted even affluent cash buyers to move away from post-pandemic urgency toward a highly analytical evaluation process.

Additionally, these market shifts reflect a widening generational and sentiment gap across the country. In secondary cash markets like Northport, Florida, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the homeownership gap between Baby Boomers and younger generations continues to expand, occurring alongside shifting national sentiment where a clear majority of buyers now view homeownership as an increasingly unrealistic milestone.

Why Cash Buyers Have an Advantage in Today’s Market

Cash buyers hold a significant edge in today’s housing market. By foregoing traditional financing, they eliminate many of the risks, delays, and uncertainties that many of us face. Additionally, sellers often prefer cash offers for a variety of reasons: they close faster, do not require lender approval, and never involve any of the red tape that comes with financing (and tends to cause delays).

Often, even if the offer is slightly lower than other bids, the seller will prefer the cash buyer. This helps cash buyers beat any potential competition, which can be crucial in a time of high mortgage rates, tight inventory, and competitive bidding. Furthermore, in a changing inventory environment, cash deals allow buyers to entirely bypass strict lender appraisal conditions. Buyers with the resources to pay cash upfront have the benefit of moving quickly with fewer conditions. Ultimately, this provides a powerful advantage, especially in markets where desirable homes sell within days.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated to adjust mortgage rates to the current 6.3% to 6.46% range, incorporate new data on the pricing divergence between single-family homes and condos in Naples, add analysis regarding the impact of rising property insurance and HOA fees, and integrate macro context concerning generational homeownership gaps and national consumer sentiment.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.