Volume XXVI, Number XXXIX | September 28, 2026
Close to three of every ten homes sold in Leon County this year changed hands without a mortgage. That is not a normal number for this market, and it is not a new one. Cash buyers have held near this level for more than a decade.
For seventeen straight years before 2008, the share of buyers paying cash barely moved. It sat between about 13% and 17% every year, through a recession, a refinancing boom and the entire run-up to the housing bubble. Then it climbed every year through 2014, peaked above 40%, and has not been back to that range since.
Our review of thirty-five years of Leon County sales finds the number of cash buyers roughly doubled, from 367 in 1991 to 724 this year. That is only half the story. Over the same years, the number of buyers using a mortgage fell from 2,241 to 1,875, after peaking at 4,444 in 2005.
So the share climbed for two reasons at once. More people are paying cash, and far fewer people are borrowing. The loss of borrowers is the larger of the two.
The loans that went away were the ones that let a buyer in with little money down. Adjustable rates and piggyback second mortgages were common before the crash and both are rare today. A buyer who would have used one in 2005 needs real savings now.
That lands hardest at the bottom. Cash buyers take nearly half of the least costly quarter of homes sold here, against about a quarter before 2008. Every price group has roughly doubled, but the entry level started highest and has stayed there.
If you are selling below the county median, expect a wider mix of offers than a seller would have seen ten years ago. A cash offer usually means a shorter path to closing and fewer conditions. It also means your home is judged on its condition rather than on what an appraiser will support.
If you are buying with an FHA or VA loan, you are competing hardest in the exact part of the market where cash is most common. Plan around that before you write an offer, not after yours is turned down.
The full report walks through thirty-five years of records, with six graphs covering who is paying cash, which loans disappeared, and which homes cash buyers take. Read it before your next move.