Published November 3, 2026 in Market Update

Nearly half of Silver Strand Beach buyers skipped the mortgage

By Garry Eberhardt

Real estate, Silver Strand Beach

People assume a beach community like Silver Strand Beach draws the usual mix of buyers: some cash, mostly loans. I pulled every listing through November 1, 2026, and the split is not what most people expect. Nearly half the buyers here did not need a mortgage at all.

Almost half the buyers here never had to worry about a rate.

36 of 82 buyers paid cash. That is 43.9%. The national share of cash sales was 26% in July 2026, according to the National Association of Realtors via CNBC. Silver Strand Beach runs nearly 18 points higher than that. This is not a small gap.

The Freddie Mac weekly rate survey put the 30-year fixed mortgage at 7.24% for the week ending October 29, 2026. For a buyer putting 20% down on the typical sold price here of $1,217,500, that rate matters a lot. For 43.9% of buyers, it did not matter at all.

Cash buyers closed faster. Their typical time on market was 31.5 days. Buyers using a loan took 37 days. That 5.5-day difference is not huge, but it adds up when a seller is carrying costs on a beach home. A cleaner, faster close has real value here.

Cash buyers also paid more. Their typical sold price was $1,300,000 against $1,190,000 for loan buyers. That is a $110,000 difference in the typical sale. Cash here does not mean bargain hunters. It means serious buyers who moved faster and paid more.

Cash buyers paid more and closed faster, but they also asked for more off the price.

Here is the part sellers sometimes miss. Cash buyers got the deal done quicker, but they also negotiated harder. Loan buyers closed at 95% of what the home first asked. Cash buyers closed at 93.2%. That is a 1.8-point gap. On a $1,300,000 sale, that is roughly $23,000 more off the price.

Sellers who expect a cash offer to also be a full-price offer may be disappointed. The data does not say cash buyers are lowballers. It says they know their offer is cleaner, and they price that in.

What this means if you are selling or buying here right now.

If you are selling, the cash buyer share here is nearly twice the national average. That is a real advantage in a market where the 30-year fixed rate is sitting at 7.24% (Freddie Mac, October 29, 2026) and slowing down buyers who need a loan. But 42.9% of the 21 homes for sale right now have already dropped their price, with a typical cut of $160,000. The buyers who can pay cash know the market too. Price it right the first time.

If you are buying with a loan, you are competing against cash on nearly half the deals. Loan buyers still closed 46 sales here, so it is not impossible. But they took 37 days on average to close, against 31.5 for cash. Being pre-approved and ready to move fast is the closest thing to a cash offer that a loan buyer has.