Why All-Cash Buyers Now Dominate New York City Home Sales — And What It Means for Affordability

Cash takes over the NYC housing market

In New York City’s current housing cycle, cash really is king. A new report from the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, highlighted by Gothamist, finds that more than 60% of the 17,924 home sales recorded in the five boroughs during the first half of 2025 were all-cash purchases.[gothamist.com] That means the buyer paid the entire price upfront, with no mortgage recorded on the transaction.

Nationally, the picture looks very different. Data from the National Association of Realtors shows that all-cash deals made up roughly one-quarter of home sales between July 2024 and June 2025.[nar.realtor] In other words, New York City’s market is almost the inverse of the national norm: here, cash dominates, and financed buyers are the minority.

Sellers and agents have clear reasons to favor these offers. Cash buyers remove the risk that a lender will balk at the appraisal, tighten underwriting standards mid-deal, or delay closing. As one Brooklyn and Manhattan agent told Gothamist, cash offers "guarantee certainty for sellers" in an otherwise turbulent economic environment.[gothamist.com]

Where cash dominates most: Queens, the Bronx, and luxury Manhattan

The cash wave is not evenly distributed across New York City.

Queens, in particular, stands out. The report found 4,132 all-cash sales in Queens out of roughly 6,000 total transactions included in the analysis during the first half of 2025.[gothamist.com] That means about two-thirds of those sales involved buyers who did not rely on a recorded mortgage at all.

In one City Council district in the East Bronx, which includes neighborhoods such as Throgs Neck and Pelham Bay, the imbalance is even more startling: only five of 325 buyers used a mortgage in the first six months of 2025.[gothamist.com] The rest paid fully in cash. This suggests a hyper-competitive local market where financed buyers are effectively sidelined.

At the higher end of the price spectrum, cash is nearly universal. For Manhattan homes that sold for more than $3 million, about nine out of ten buyers paid the entire price upfront.[gothamist.com] Luxury deals have long skewed toward cash, but the current data shows how deeply that pattern has taken hold.

The Center for NYC Neighborhoods focused its analysis on one- to four-family homes, condos, and co-ops in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, using public property records from January 1 through June 30, 2025.[gothamist.com] Staten Island, which uses a different recordkeeping system, was not included.

Who benefits from a cash-heavy market

A cash-dominated market has clear winners. Homeowners with significant equity from prior sales, buyers with high incomes or large savings, and people trading up within the city can all leverage cash to move quickly when an opportunity appears.

Institutional investors and speculators also benefit. The Center for NYC Neighborhoods’ report and other research cited by Gothamist link high cash activity in parts of the East Bronx and Southeast Queens with elevated levels of home flipping.[gothamist.com] In these areas, properties are often bought quickly for cash, renovated or repositioned, and then resold for a higher price, sometimes within a relatively short window.[prattcenter.net]

For distressed owners, the appeal of a cash buyer can be immediate relief. The report notes that foreclosure filings nearly doubled in the first half of 2025 compared with the second half of 2024, with concentrations in lower- and middle-income neighborhoods in Central Brooklyn and Southeast Queens.[gothamist.com] In these communities, where many residents are people of color and where the 2008 mortgage crisis hit especially hard, cash offers can look like an escape valve from mounting debt or the threat of foreclosure.

Yet these same dynamics deepen concerns about long-term inequality. Advocates at the Center for NYC Neighborhoods warn that the surge in all-cash deals is "deepening inequality" in who can buy homes and who can hold onto them over time.[gothamist.com] When buyers backed by wages and traditional mortgages are consistently outbid by investors or high-wealth households, ownership opportunities narrow for typical New Yorkers.

What this means for financed buyers and affordability

For would-be homeowners reliant on a mortgage, competing in a cash-saturated market is especially challenging.

First, financed buyers have a structural disadvantage in negotiations. A seller weighing multiple offers will often favor the one with fewer contingencies and a higher probability of closing on time. Cash buyers can waive financing contingencies entirely and are not dependent on an appraisal coming in at or above the contract price. That flexibility can allow them to win bidding wars without necessarily offering the highest nominal price.

Second, a high share of cash purchases can push prices upward in certain submarkets. Investors and high-wealth buyers can act quickly on attractive listings, reducing available inventory for financed buyers and adding pressure in more moderately priced neighborhoods if they are priced out of the traditional luxury core. Research on flipping activity in Southeast Queens and parts of the Bronx suggests that investors often target areas with relatively lower initial prices and stronger potential for appreciation, which can accelerate price growth once homes are resold.[prattcenter.net]

Third, these ownership trends have spillover effects on the rental market. As the Center for NYC Neighborhoods points out, many households that lose or sell a home under financial stress end up renting their next residence.[gothamist.com] When they do, demand for rental units increases, which can heighten competition for apartments in the same neighborhoods where ownership has become more investor-heavy.

Advocates and some local leaders are pressing for policy responses. Proposals include measures to slow speculative flipping by imposing additional taxes on very short hold periods and requiring more transparency around ownership when properties are purchased through limited liability companies.[gothamist.com] The goal is to curb the most aggressive forms of speculation without shutting down legitimate investment or the ability of owners to sell when needed.

Navigating an all-cash landscape as a typical buyer

In the near term, financed buyers in New York City must adapt to the reality that they are often competing against cash. Strategies can include:

• Getting fully underwritten pre-approvals rather than simple pre-qualification letters, to signal strength to sellers.
• Increasing down payment amounts where possible to reduce perceived financing risk.
• Shortening contingency periods and being flexible on closing timelines, in consultation with a lender.
• Targeting neighborhoods or property types where the share of cash buyers may be lower, even within the same borough.

None of these steps completely level the playing field with an all-cash offer. But they can help financed buyers stand out in a market where liquidity and speed carry a growing premium.

Over time, the balance between cash and financed purchases will depend on broader economic conditions, lending standards, and local policy choices. For now, the data is clear: in New York City’s housing market, cash isn’t just an advantage — it is increasingly the norm.