{"id":6004,"date":"2025-09-25T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/downsizing-without-debt-how-more-homeowners-are-buying-their-next-house-in-cash\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:30:00","slug":"downsizing-without-debt-how-more-homeowners-are-buying-their-next-house-in-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/downsizing-without-debt-how-more-homeowners-are-buying-their-next-house-in-cash\/","title":{"rendered":"Downsizing Without Debt: How More Homeowners Are Buying Their Next House in Cash"},"content":{"rendered":"<body>\n<div><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250925-Blog-Header-Image-original.png?w=1220&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Downsizing Without Debt: How More Homeowners Are Buying Their Next House in Cash Simplifying The Market\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear: both; max-width: 100%;\">\n<p>If you\u2019ve been thinking about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simplifyingthemarket.com\/2025\/06\/13\/you-may-have-enough-equity-to-downsize-and-buy-your-next-house-in-cash-infographic\/?a=783612-02a11606fc81d6a6e402d49bc5bfe20b\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">downsizing<\/a> to lower your expenses, be closer to family, or just make life easier, here\u2019s a trend worth paying attention to:<\/p>\n<p><strong>More homeowners are buying their next house outright, without taking on a new mortgage.<\/strong> And, if you\u2019ve owned your home for a while, you may be able to do the same. No mortgage. No monthly housing payments.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>A Record Share of Homeowners Are Mortgage-Free<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>According to analysis from <em>ResiClub <\/em>of <em>Census <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.resiclubanalytics.com\/p\/the-share-of-mortgage-free-homeowners-just-hit-a-new-high-housing-market\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">data<\/a>, more than <strong>40% of U.S. owner-occupied homes are mortgage-free <\/strong>\u2013<strong> <\/strong>an all-time high for this data series. That means <strong>4 in 10<\/strong> homeowners own their homes free and clear (<em>see graph below<\/em>):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250925-40-Percent-of-Homeowners-Are-Now-Mortgage-Free-original.png?ssl=1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250925-40-Percent-of-Homeowners-Are-Now-Mortgage-Free-original.png?w=1220&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"a graph of a number of blue bars\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/a>One big reason for this trend? Demographics. As Baby Boomers age and stay in their homes longer, many have had the time to fully pay off their mortgages. You might be in that group too and not even realize just how much buying power you now have. It\u2019s time to change that.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>How Downsizers Are Turning Equity into Buying Power<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>As a homeowner, your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simplifyingthemarket.com\/2025\/09\/18\/do-you-know-how-much-your-house-is-really-worth\/?a=783612-02a11606fc81d6a6e402d49bc5bfe20b\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>equity<\/strong><\/a> is your biggest advantage in today\u2019s market. <strong>If you\u2019re mortgage-free (or close to it), it could give you the power to buy your next home in cash. <\/strong>That means you\u2019d still have no mortgage payment in retirement, plus:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Less financial stress as you age<\/li>\n<li>More cash flow, if you purchase a less expensive home<\/li>\n<li>And it would likely be a faster, simpler transaction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s how it works. You\u2019d sell your current house and use the proceeds to buy your next house in cash. And while that may sound like something you thought would never be possible for you, it\u2019s more realistic than you may think.<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/jbrec.com\/research\/burns-real-estate-agent-survey\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">latest survey<\/a> from <em>John Burns Research and Consulting<\/em> (JBREC) and <em>Keeping Current Matters<\/em> (KCM), agents reported the share of purchases with all-cash buyers is climbing nationally. And those agents are seeing increases in almost every region of the country (<em>see graph below)<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250925-All-Cash-Sales-Rose-Year-Over-Year-original.png?ssl=1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250925-All-Cash-Sales-Rose-Year-Over-Year-original.png?w=1220&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"a graph of sales\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/a>For Baby Boomers especially, buying in cash gives you more control over your next chapter. You could buy a smaller, less expensive home and have lower costs, less upkeep, and more flexibility to enjoy what matters most. All while staying debt and stress free.<\/p>\n<p>Because downsizing isn\u2019t about downgrading your home. It\u2019s about upgrading your quality of life. And that\u2019s something worth exploring.<\/p>\n<h3>Bottom Line<\/h3>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve worked hard for your house. Now it might be time for it to work hard for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Talk to your agent about what your house is worth, and what it could unlock for you today. <strong>What would your ideal home look like if you were to downsize right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been thinking about downsizing to lower your expenses, be closer to family, or just make life easier, here\u2019s a trend worth paying attention to: More homeowners are buying their next house outright, without taking on a new mortgage. And, if you\u2019ve owned your home for a while, you may be able to do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6005,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[29,27,20,18,28],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-insight","tag-idaho-real-estate","tag-north-idaho-homes","tag-rain-silverhawk","tag-real-estate","tag-sandpoint-idaho"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250925-Blog-Header-Image-original.png?fit=750%2C410&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdz2Zu-1yQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}