report <\/a>from Redfin, Miami, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville metro areas continue to dominate the country in cash-heavy transactions, even as high mortgage rates begin to stabilize.<\/p>\nNationally, just 29% of homebuyers paid in all cash in December, the lowest share for that month since 2020. This decline is largely attributed to the “strongest buyer’s market in recent history,” where a 47% surplus of sellers has reduced the need for buyers to use cash as a competitive lever.<\/p>\n
While the national trend is downward, Florida\u2019s major markets are still seeing a massive influx of cash. West Palm Beach led the entire country, with 47.2% of all buyers paying in cash. Miami and Jacksonville followed closely behind, tied at 39.3%. Fort Lauderdale metro was almost 36%.<\/p>\n
These figures stand in stark contrast to West Coast tech hubs like Seattle, where the cash share sits at just 17.3%. <\/p>\n
The persistence of cash in Florida is driven by sellers who are increasingly desperate for fast closings as inventory sits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe leverage buyers have when they pay in cash is unbelievable,\u201d says Amanda Peterson, a Redfin Premier agent. \u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon to see a buyer score a home for 10-20% below the appraised value if they offer cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shift in financing<\/p>\n
The report also highlighted a struggle for entry-level buyers. In Florida, rising costs beyond the sticker price are pushing many out of the market, according to John Tomlinson, a Redfin Premier agent in Fort Lauderdale. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of homebuyers\u2014especially FHA buyers\u2014are getting cold feet when they see the actual monthly payment and the amount of money they need to bring to the table at closing,\u201d Tomlinson said. \u201cRising HOA fees are adding insult to injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
While cash remains king in the Sunshine State, Jacksonville is seeing a diversification in lending, recording some of the highest shares of VA loans (19.6%) in the country as veterans take advantage of the cooling competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As 2025 came to a close, the U.S. housing market saw all-cash purchases hit a five-year low. Not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-162505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}