Cash buyers made up just 3.5% of new-home purchases in the second quarter of 2026, the smallest share since the depths of the 2007 housing bust, according to a National Association of Home Builders analysis of Census Bureau new-home sales data published Tuesday.
The NAHB Eye on Housing analysis found that of the roughly 170,000 new homes sold in the second quarter, only about 6,000 were bought without a mortgage. That is the lowest cash share recorded since the fourth quarter of 2007, when cash purchases stood at 3.4% just as the housing market was beginning its collapse. Conventional financing dominated the quarter, accounting for 71.9% of new-home sales, or roughly 123,000 homes. FHA-backed loans made up 19.3% of sales, about 33,000 homes, while VA financing accounted for 5.3%, or 9,000 homes.
The financing mix also showed up in prices. Homes bought with cash carried a median sales price of $467,100, the highest of any financing category and well above the overall median new-home price of $410,700 in the quarter. VA-financed homes had a median price of $457,500, followed by conventional loans at $430,700 and FHA loans at $366,700 β a gap of more than $100,000 between the priciest and least expensive financing categories, underscoring how FHA loans continue to serve buyers at the lower end of the new-home market.
NAHB’s analysis also flagged that FHA-financed sales reached their highest level since early 2021, a shift that comes as affordability pressures push more new-home buyers toward loan programs with lower down-payment requirements. New-home sales overall ticked up to 170,000 in the second quarter from 165,000 in the first quarter but remained below the 178,000 sold a year earlier, in the second quarter of 2025.
The nearly two-decade-low cash share is notable because all-cash buyers are typically viewed as a cushion against rate-driven demand swings, since they don’t need financing approval or a specific mortgage rate to close. Their retreat from the new-home market in particular may reflect that many cash purchasers gravitate toward previously owned homes, which can close faster and involve less negotiation over builder incentives. New-home builders, by contrast, have leaned heavily on mortgage-rate buydowns and other financing incentives to move inventory in 2026 β a strategy that only benefits buyers using a mortgage in the first place, potentially reinforcing cash’s shrinking role in this segment of the market.
What it means: Verified facts: cash’s share of new-home purchases fell to its lowest level in nearly two decades, while FHA-backed purchases climbed to a five-year high, per NAHB’s reading of Census figures. RealtyWire’s analysis: the two trends are two sides of the same coin β as mortgage rates stayed elevated through the summer and new-home prices held near record territory, all-cash buyers, who tend to be less rate-sensitive, made up a shrinking slice of a market increasingly dependent on financed purchases, with buyers leaning more heavily on lower-down-payment FHA loans to bridge the affordability gap. That dependence on financing means new-home sales volume remains more exposed to swings in mortgage rates than it would be in a market with a larger cash-buyer cushion.
The data lands alongside other signs of financing strain across the mortgage market, including recent ICE Mortgage Technology data on FHA loan performance and ongoing questions among buyers about how to weigh FHA versus conventional financing in a higher-rate environment. It also comes as investor purchasing activity has been separately reported near multi-year lows, per RCN Capital’s summer 2026 investor sentiment survey, suggesting the retreat from cash purchases extends beyond individual buyers to investors as well.
NAHB’s Eye on Housing publishes quarterly breakdowns of new-home financing based on Census Bureau data as part of its ongoing housing-economics coverage.
