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While 1 in 4 homes in Massachusetts were bought with cash in the first half of this year, these types of deals are on the decline – slightly.
According to a new report from Realtor.com, 26.4 percent of home purchases in Massachusetts were purchased completely with cash in the first half of 2025. This represents a 1.1 percent drop year-over-year.
In the Greater Boston market, 26.1 percent of sales were made to all-cash buyers in the first half of this year, down 2 percent year-over-year.
“Cash buyers have long been a fixture in the market, but their influence is more pronounced today than in pre-pandemic years,” Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale said in a statement. “High-wealth buyers, investors, and those with significant equity can move quickly and often win out in competitive situations. For traditional, mortgage-reliant buyers, this can add another hurdle in an already challenging affordability environment.”
While having a higher percentage of cash deals (29.3 percent), Connecticut also saw the number of cash deals in the state dip (2 percent decline year-over-year). Maine (44.4 percent) had the fifth-highest percentage of cash deals in the country.
Nationwide, 32.8 percent of home sales in the first half of 2025 were all-cash transactions. Two-thirds of homes under $100,000 and more than 40 percent of homes over $1 million were bought with cash, with the share topping 50 percent for homes above $2 million, according to Realtor.com’s economics team.
But sales in those four price brackets collectively represent only 11.01 percent of homes sold in the U.S. in the first half of 2025.
All-cash sales tended to peak in February, the report found, the month when overall sales hit their lowest level for the year.
“Cash sales underscore the wealth concentration shaping today’s housing market,” Realtor.com Senior Economic Research Analyst Hannah Jones said in a statement. “If mortgage rates fall, we could see financed buyers regain ground, but for now, cash remains a powerful competitive advantage.”
