Over 30 million homes across the USA are not pledged under mortgage loans, which corresponds to 34% of all single-family houses and condominiums. The greatest share of mortgage-free properties was registered in Florida, which also boasts the country’s highest percentage of retirees in the population.
Attom, a firm that specializes in real estate analytics, reviewed 15 US counties with more than half a million residences. The greatest share of homes fully paid for by their owners was in Palm Beach, Florida: 41.5% out of 567,238 houses. The nearby Broward County that includes Fort Lauderdale and some parts of Miami came second with 36% out of its 624,886 houses. For the sake of comparison, the mortgage was fully paid on 60% of Manhattan homes and only 16% of those in Los Angeles.
The real estate boom that occurred during the pandemic has made millions of Americans rich over the past two years. Skyrocketing home prices in the USA (which have grown by 40% since 2019) turned out to be extremely beneficial for those who already paid all their mortgage loans.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 23% of purchase and sale transactions with residential properties in the USA were paid out of pocket as of September this year, which was 1% more than last year.