Do Cash Buyers Pay Less for a House in Columbus? What 3,788 Cash Sales Closed For in 2026

I get asked this two ways. Sellers ask it hoping the answer is no, because they have a cash offer on the table for less than the financed one. Buyers ask it hoping the answer is yes, because they have the money and want it to count. So I pulled every 2026 resale closing in the Columbus REALTORS MLS, 19,060 of them through September 3, and split them by how the buyer paid. Cash buyers paid a median $281,500 and financed buyers paid $335,000. That looks like a $53,500 discount, and almost none of it is a discount. It is the house.

This matters more in 2026 than it did three years ago. One in five closings is cash now, and in the bands where most of my clients shop, $300,000 to $700,000, the cash buyer is not an investor with a spreadsheet. It is the couple who sold in Westerville and is buying in Dublin with the equity, or the relocation buyer whose company is carrying the bridge. They are competing with financed buyers for the same house, and the financed buyer needs to know whether the cash offer next to theirs is going to be accepted at a lower number. The table below answers that, band by band, and the answer is no above $300,000.

How many Columbus homes sold for cash in 2026?

Central Ohio, 2026 through Sept 3	Cash	Financed
Share of resale closings	20% (3,788)	80% (15,272)
Median sale price	$281,500	$335,000
Median price per square foot	$189	$207
Median sale price to original list	97.3%	99.4%
Median days from listing to contract	16	19
Median year built	1977	1980

A fifth of the market pays cash. That number has been stable all year, 19 to 22 percent every month. The cash buyer's median house is three years older and sold at 97.3 percent of the first ask against 99.4. So there is a gap. The question is whether it is the money or the house, and the price bands answer it.

Where does cash actually pay less?

Price band	Cash share	Cash: median price	Cash: $/sq ft	Cash: % of ask	Financed: median price	Financed: $/sq ft	Financed: % of ask
Under $200,000	39%	$115,000	$100	91.5%	$165,000	$145	97.3%
$200,000 to $300,000	15%	$245,000	$189	97.5%	$250,000	$193	99.3%
$300,000 to $400,000	14%	$346,000	$214	98.4%	$345,500	$213	100.0%
$400,000 to $600,000	15%	$475,000	$236	99.0%	$465,000	$224	99.8%
$600,000 to $1 million	19%	$705,000	$283	98.9%	$715,000	$259	100.0%
Over $1 million	34%	$1,350,000	$393	100.0%	$1,300,000	$358	99.2%

Under $200,000 is where the discount lives, and it is large: cash paid $100 a foot against $145, and 91.5 percent of ask against 97.3. That is a 1954 house, as-is, often an estate or a tired rental, sold to the buyer who does not need it to appraise or pass an FHA inspection. The seller is trading price for a closing that will actually happen. Call it a condition discount paid in cash, because that is what it is.

From $300,000 up, the discount is gone. Cash buyers paid more per square foot than financed buyers in every band from $300,000 to $1 million, $214 against $213, $236 against $224, $283 against $259, and closed within a point or two of the financed ratio. Over $1 million a third of buyers are cash and they paid 100 percent of ask, more than the financed buyers did. The money is not buying a discount up there. It is buying the house.

Does cash pay less in the suburbs?

Suburb	Cash share	Cash: median price	Cash: % of ask	Cash: days	Financed: median price	Financed: % of ask	Financed: days
Westerville	20%	$399,550	99.6%	13	$445,950	100.0%	14
Dublin	23%	$525,000	98.5%	13	$545,500	100.0%	14
New Albany	29%	$600,000	98.8%	18	$605,000	99.3%	24
Powell	22%	$530,000	98.0%	28	$550,500	100.0%	14
Hilliard	19%	$339,000	97.9%	16	$381,500	100.0%	13
Grove City	15%	$319,725	99.0%	9	$343,000	100.0%	16
Pickerington	10%	$371,000	99.7%	13	$425,000	100.0%	17
Delaware	18%	$374,000	98.3%	16	$410,000	99.0%	22
Columbus	22%	$220,000	96.8%	14	$295,000	100.0%	19

The suburb rows say the same thing the price bands do. Westerville cash buyers closed at 99.6 percent of ask, four tenths of a point under financed. Dublin and New Albany, a point and a half and half a point. The one suburb with a real cash gap is Columbus proper, 96.8 against 100, and that is the under-$200,000 stock again showing up in the city's number.

I ran the same-house test to be sure, because I have watched too many sellers take the cash offer on the strength of a rule that does not exist. Westerville homes built 1985 to 2010, between 1,600 and 2,600 square feet, the ordinary two-story in the ordinary subdivision: cash buyers paid $443,500 and 100 percent of ask, financed buyers paid $492,139 and 100 percent of ask. Same ratio, and the price difference is a smaller house, not a cheaper one. Columbus houses built before 1970 between 1,000 and 1,800 square feet: cash paid $180,000 and 95.7 percent, financed paid $270,000 and 100 percent. That is the condition discount again, and it is the only place it shows up.

What should you do with this?

If you are selling a house over $300,000 and someone tells you to take the cash offer because "cash buyers always pay less anyway," the table says they do not. Cash and financed buyers paid within a point of each other from $300,000 to $1 million this year. A cash offer $15,000 under the financed one is not the going rate. It is that buyer's opening. The thing cash is worth to you is the appraisal contingency you do not have to survive and the three weeks you get back. Price that, and only that.

If you are selling under $200,000, the math flips. Your buyer pool is 39 percent cash because the other 61 percent may not be able to close on your house as it sits. The 91.5 percent ratio is what an as-is sale costs. If the house can pass an FHA appraisal with a weekend of work, do the weekend and get the other 97.3.

If you are buying with cash in Westerville, Dublin or anywhere over $300,000, stop expecting a discount and start using the money for what it does. Drop the financing contingency, shorten the close to three weeks, and offer the number the comps support. That combination beats a financed offer $10,000 higher more often than not, and in a 38-percent-over-ask suburb it is the only edge that is not a bigger number.

Send me the address and the price you are looking at and I will run cash against financed for that town and that band. Start with a home value estimate if you are selling or a home search if you are buying, and I will run it myself. To talk it through, book a call.

Related reading: do homes sell over asking in Columbus, by suburb, what a cash offer from an iBuyer actually costs, how to win with multiple offers, and the Westerville submarket page.

Adam Geuy, Realtor, Blacktree Realty. 937-239-2919.

Sources

• Every figure: Columbus REALTORS MLS closed residential listings, January 1 through September 3, 2026, resale only, limited to sales with a recorded original list price (19,060; 3,788 cash). Cash is the MLS sold-terms field; everything else is financed. Ratios compare closed price to original list price. Days are MLS entry to under-contract. Same-house tests filter on year built and documented square footage. Computed by Adam Geuy from MLS exports; the script is on file.