Who's Buying Homes With Cash? What Prescott Buyers and Sellers Should Know

Ryan Serhant, CEO of SERHANT, says there is not just one housing market right now. There are really four: cash buyers, buyers who need a mortgage, homeowners with low mortgage rates, and builders. Today, let's look at the first group, cash buyers.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 27% of homes sold in September were bought with all cash. That is more than 1 in 4 buyers, and it is a big number when so many people are struggling with affordability.

Who Is Paying Cash?

It is easy to picture wealthy investors buying up houses left and right. That is not the whole story. According to NAR, cash buyers tend to fall into a few groups:

• Homeowners who sold a house and are using that money to buy their next one
• People buying a second home
• Investors

That first group may include people a lot more like you. According to Cotality, the average homeowner with a mortgage has about $310,000 in equity.

That matters right now. Many homeowners feel stuck because they do not want to give up the low mortgage rate they have today. But once they learn they may have enough equity to move and pay cash for their next home, today's rates do not matter nearly as much. Buying in all cash means:

• No monthly mortgage payment
• No need to borrow at today's mortgage rates
• No loan approval process, so you may be able to close faster

Even if your equity will not cover the whole purchase, putting more of it toward the next home means borrowing less. That can mean a smaller monthly payment, too.

Cash Buyers Vary a Lot by Location

How big this group is depends on where you live. Realtor.com data shows cash buyers made up almost 47% of sales in Mississippi and 46% in Montana earlier this year. The map below shows where your state falls. Arizona came in at 31%, close to the 31.4% national average for those four months. These Realtor.com figures cover January to April 2026, while the 27% above is NAR data for September alone, so the two numbers measure different periods and are not directly comparable.

Cash buyer share changes a lot from one state to the next, according to Realtor.com. An agent who knows your area can show you how cash offers appear in local sales.

Most Buyers Are Still Using a Mortgage

If all of this has you thinking everyone is paying cash, they are not. If you are planning to buy and need a mortgage, you are in the majority. Based on NAR's numbers, nearly 3 out of 4 home purchases still involve financing.

For homes priced between $200,000 and $750,000, only about 1 in 5 sold for cash, according to Realtor.com:

That means most buyers in that price range are financing their purchase, too.

What This Means for Your Move

If you already own a home, you may have enough equity to make your next move more affordable than you realize. If you are buying with a mortgage, remember that most buyers are financing their purchases.

Do not make assumptions about what is possible based on how other people are buying homes. What matters is your equity, your budget, and what is happening in your local market.

Bottom Line

Cash buyers are a meaningful part of today's market, but they are not the whole market. Whether you want to put your equity to work or you are buying with a mortgage, a local agent can help you see how much equity you have, who is buying in your area, and what that means for your next move. If you are thinking about a move in Prescott or the Quad Cities, reach out and we can talk it through.

Source: NAR, Cotality and Realtor.com data on cash buyers