All-cash home purchases gradually rise in the Triangle
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Chapel Hill's Gimghoul neighborhood. Photo: Katie Peralta Soloff/Axios
The number of all-cash home sales in the Triangle has steadily risen in recent years, though it's below the national average.
Why it matters: Local real estate professionals say cash deals are popular amid high interest rates. Wealthy buyers can adapt to this pricey real estate market more easily than typical buyers needing a loan.
Between the lines: All-cash buyers also present several advantages to sellers, including their ability to close quickly and offer more due diligence money.
The big picture: Since January 2011, 34.5% of homes nationwide have been purchased with cash as of February 2024, per Redfin data.
By the numbers: Of the 44,769 total home sales in the Triangle between May 2023 and May 2024, 54% were conventional mortgages and 19% were cash, according to data from Triangle Multiple Listing Service. The remainder were mostly government-insured mortgage programs.
- The 12 months prior to that, 19% were cash and 58% were conventional mortgages.
Yes, but: The overall percentage of cash sales across all price points in the Triangle over the past 18 months (beginning in January 2023) is about 18.2%, up from around 16.2% during the 18 months before the pandemic.
What they're saying: "As interest rates pushed 8% we saw a higher proportion of all-cash offers," says Adam Dickinson, a Realtor with Nest Realty.
State of play: All-cash buyers come from a range of backgrounds, Dickinson says. Often they're out-of-state buyers relocating from pricier markets.
- "So they're not interest rate sensitive. Then you get the people who are relocating here for jobs," John Finan of Exeter Building Company told WTVD last year.
- Plus, there are plenty of high-income residents in the Triangle whose homes have appreciated a lot — and who've been able to save money while mortgage rates were very low, Dickinson adds.
Lower-income buyers and first-time buyers are feeling the squeeze from the competitive edge presented by all-cash buyers.
- But cash offers among first-time buyers have risen, too. 6% of first-time buyers made an all-cash purchase in 2023, compared to 4% in 2003, according to the National Association of Realtors.