Data Analysis

More than half of Collier County home sales closed without a mortgage in July. In Clay County it was one in five. The cash map of Florida is the market's real dividing line.

First publication of our cash-buyer share series: 16 Florida counties, computed from 12,000 July closings in the MLS records we license, with two years of history. The counties are not where you might guess, and neither are the price points.

In July, 53.5% of closed home sales in Collier County were cash. Palm Beach County ran 48.1%, Volusia 46.6%, Martin 44.8%. At the other end of the same state, Duval closed 23.5% cash, Clay 20.4%, and Santa Rosa 18.7%.

This is the first month we publish this series. It is computed from the buyer financing recorded on closed residential sales in the MLS feeds we license, deduplicated by listing, county by county and month by month. Nobody else publishes this number at county grain from closing records, which is why we built it.

The U-shape is the story

Split the same July closings by price instead of by county and the pattern inverts twice. Sales of $1 million and up closed 53.8% cash. Sales under $300,000 closed 47.8% cash. The middle of the market, $300,000 to $500,000, closed just 25.9% cash.

Cash lives at both ends of the price ladder, and the mortgage lives in the middle.

The two ends are different kinds of cash. At the top, it is buyers who do not need financing and use the certainty of cash as negotiating leverage. At the bottom, it is investor purchases and, in the condo counties, buildings where financing is the constraint: a tower with a failed reserve study or pending assessment can be effectively mortgage-proof, so the only buyers left are cash buyers. Volusia's climb from 37.2% cash in July 2024 to 46.6% now is what that looks like in a county where the median sits low and condo stock is aging.

The middle band is where FHA, VA, and conventional lending do their work. Miami-Dade's July closings show it plainly: FHA financed 109 of the 522 sales between $300,000 and $500,000, and zero of the 411 sales at $1 million and up. When rates move, the middle band feels it first, which is why our demand indicators track it separately.

What this means in a negotiation

Selling in a high-cash county (Collier, Palm Beach, Volusia, Martin): a financed offer competing against cash needs to be visibly stronger on price or terms, and appraisal contingencies are the lever cash buyers use against you when you are the buyer. Pricing at the last comp and expecting a bidding war misreads who is actually buying.

Buying with a mortgage in those counties: target the $300,000 to $500,000 band where financed buyers are the norm and sellers expect financing contingencies, or come to the cash-heavy segments with underwriting done and appraisal gaps covered.

Selling in the mortgage belt (Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, Santa Rosa, Brevard): your buyer almost certainly needs a loan, so rate moves change your buyer pool within weeks. The September rate path in this week's Fed minutes matters more to a Jacksonville seller than to a Naples one.

Across the measured counties as a whole, the cash share has been broadly stable for two years. The composition beneath it has not: Volusia rose nine points while Miami-Dade sat within a point of 36% every July. A stable statewide average made of moving county parts is the usual Florida story, and it is why we publish the county grain.

Limitations

This series covers the 16 counties, from seven MLS feeds, where the buyer-financing field is genuinely populated: Broward, Brevard, Clay, Collier, Duval, Flagler, Lee, Martin, Miami-Dade, Nassau, Palm Beach, Putnam, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Santa Rosa, and Volusia. Counties with fewer than 50 July closings are not shown. Three licensed feeds record no financing detail on closings and are excluded entirely rather than shown as fictional all-financed markets; the Tampa, Orlando, and Sarasota metro core is not yet in this series for the same reason, and we say so rather than estimate it. Financing type is as recorded by the closing agent in the MLS; a small share of sales carry other or unrecorded financing and remain in the denominator. Figures are counts of closed residential sales deduplicated by listing; they are aggregates, and no listing-level data is displayed. History for Miami-Dade begins July 2024 with this lane's backfill; several other counties carry decades. All figures may be revised as feeds correct records.

Sources and links

• Momentum Research cash-buyer share lane, computed from MLS records licensed by Momentum Realty
• Related: /news/florida/fomc-minutes-july-2026/
• Related: /news/florida/florida-condo-sellers-outnumber-buyers-july-2026/
• Data hubs: /data/markets/
• Tool: /tools/florida-home-offer-calculator.html

Disclosure: Jon Brooks is a co-founder of Momentum Realty, a Florida real estate brokerage that owns and funds Florida Housing Intelligence. Momentum has a financial interest in Florida real estate transactions, including in markets named here. See our editorial standards.