Cash Purchases Are at Their Lowest Share Since 2020


 

 Check Out This Weeks Newsletter

Cash buyers just hit their lowest share since 2020. Here's what the data means for financed buyers and the script to get them off the sidelines.

For the past few years, financed buyers have had it rough. On top of affordability challenges, cash offers were everywhere, and sellers loved them. Buyers without a pile of liquid money felt like they were showing up to a gunfight with a water pistol. 

A lot of those buyers eventually just stopped showing up. 

Good news for those buyers? The water’s getting warmer.

According to a new Redfin report, 28.8% of U.S. home purchases were made in all cash in March 2026. That’s tied for the lowest March share since 2020, and it’s down from 29.8% just a year ago. 

The all-cash surge that peaked at nearly 35% in 2023 is cooling off, and the buyers who got squeezed out during that run should be on your call list right now.

The conditions that made cash offers nearly impossible to beat have changed, and agents who understand why are going to have a much easier time getting hesitant buyers off the fence. 

Here is what the data shows, along with the script to use when your buyer thinks they still can’t compete.

Why Cash Offers Are Losing Their Grip

The all-cash surge that defined the post-pandemic housing market had a pretty straightforward explanation. When mortgage rates climbed to nearly 8% in 2023, buyers who could afford to pay cash did exactly that. Monthly payments on a financed purchase were brutal, and sellers loved the simplicity of a cash deal. Cash purchases peaked at nearly 35% that year.

A few things have happened since then to pull that number down:

  • Mortgage rates eased to 6.18% in March 2026, down from recent highs above 7%. When the monthly payment math improves, the incentive to drain savings and skip a mortgage weakens with it.

  • There are significantly more sellers than buyers in most of the country right now. When inventory is that lopsided, buyers don’t need to show up with a bag of cash to get a seller’s attention.

  • Economic uncertainty is pulling cash out of real estate deals. With inflation concerns, recession jitters, and general market volatility in the mix, even affluent buyers who could pay cash are choosing to finance and keep their liquidity intact. Having cash on hand feels a lot more valuable right now than having it locked up in a home.

The competitive urgency that made cash offers so powerful has faded in most markets. That’s the opening your financed buyers have been waiting for.

Where Cash Still Dominates (And Where It Doesn’t)

Cash purchases aren’t disappearing everywhere at the same rate. The national number tells one story, but the metro-level data is where it gets interesting for agents working specific markets.

The metros with the highest share of cash purchases in March 2026:

1.       Cleveland, OH: 51.1% (up 4.9 percentage points year over year)

2.      West Palm Beach, FL: 51.1% (down 0.1 pp)

3.      Detroit, MI: 45.8% (up 9.6 pp)

4.     Riverside, CA: 38.1% (up 9.3 pp)

5.      Fort Lauderdale, FL: 38.0% (down 0.7 pp)

Florida’s high cash rates are driven largely by affluent retirees and second-home buyers who have the liquidity to pay outright. In Midwest markets like Cleveland and Detroit, relatively low home prices make all-cash purchases more accessible to both investors and regular buyers. 

Cleveland is also one of the few metros in the country that isn’t a buyer’s market, so competition among buyers is still pushing some toward cash offers.

On the other end of the spectrum, these popular West Coast metros had the lowest cash purchase rates in March 2026:

1.       Seattle, WA: 17.6% (down 0.7 pp)

2.      Oakland, CA: 18.4% (down 1.0 pp)

3.      Sacramento, CA: 19.9% (down 4.2 pp)

4.     Los Angeles, CA: 20.5% (down 3.0 pp)

5.      San Diego, CA: 20.7% (down 3.0 pp)

In expensive coastal markets, paying all cash can realistically require several million dollars. That shrinks the pool of buyers who can even consider it, which is why financed offers have always been the norm in those markets.

What This Means for Your Buyers

The practical implication of all this is pretty simple. Fewer cash buyers in the market means less competition from the buyer pool that has historically been the hardest to beat. 

Sellers aren’t fielding five cash offers on a weekend anymore in most markets. They need to move their homes, and a well-prepared financed buyer looks a lot more attractive in that environment than they did two years ago.

There’s also a financial case worth making to buyers who are on the fence about whether to pay cash at all. If a buyer has the funds to purchase outright, tying all of that money up in a home isn’t automatically the smartest move. Investing that cash elsewhere and taking out a mortgage can make sense financially if the returns on that investment outpace the mortgage rate. 

That’s a conversation worth having before a buyer assumes cash is always the right call.

The buyers who checked out of the market because they felt like they couldn’t compete deserve a direct conversation. The market they walked away from and the market they’d be walking into today are not the same market. 

Key Details:

  • Redfin reports that 28.8% of U.S. home purchases were made in all cash in March 2026, down from 29.8% a year earlier and tied for the lowest March share since 2020.

  • Cash purchases peaked at nearly 35% in 2023 when mortgage rates hit almost 8%, and have been declining as rates eased to 6.18% in March 2026.

  • Cleveland and West Palm Beach led all metros at 51.1% cash purchases, while Seattle recorded the lowest share at 17.6%.

 

Housing Market - May 28, 2026 - Sarah Lentz

 

https://nowbam.com/cash-purchases-are-at-their-lowest-share-since-2020/

 

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Location: Martinez, CA 94553, USA

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