You Might Be 'Upper Class' If You Can Pay For This Asset In All Cash

The idea of being upper class is a bit of a chimera, as it has no official specification. It's subjective – millennials may consider you upper class if your salary is above $100 thousand, but that number is even smaller for Gen Z. Even with this blurred definition, there are some concrete financial strategies that only those in the upper class can leverage. This is the case for homeownership, particularly in a market where both mortgage rates and housing prices remain high or increase. It is this fact that leads GoBankrates to label people upper class if they can buy their home in cash, without leaning on financial support from a lender.

The cost of both regular and luxury homes reached five-year highs in 2025. The average price of a home in the United States was $410,800 in the second quarter of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve, and Zillow predicted the price to increase by over 1% in the coming year. Meanwhile, Realtor reported that the median cost of an entry-level luxury home is now $1.3 million, a 63% leap from 2016. That price grew a whopping 8.7% from 2023 to 2024 alone, rapidly outpacing the regular market.

Regardless, having the liquid assets to make a home purchase in cash firmly secures you in the top echelon of American earners. Additionally, as individuals in the upper classes often own summer homes or vacation rentals, cash is seen as a way to invest in the housing market without taking on debt from financing or mortgages. One way to reach this is through liquidity, echoing the common investment strategies of the world's wealthiest people.

Cash is still a very lucrative way to achieve homeownership, with all-cash payments making up a surprising 29% of home purchases in 2025. Given the rising cost of housing over the past five years, being a member of this 29% is a clear indicator of wealth.

Buying a home in cash also allows more financial security as a homebuyer. In fact, many of the world's wealthiest individuals hold large amounts of cash rather than putting it into the market or leveraging it as part of a loan. One such person is Warren Buffett, whose real estate company, Berkshire Hathaway, has a cash holding of over $300 million, which is bad for the economy but good for him. When asked about this at the company's 2025 shareholder meeting, Buffet said (via YAPSS), "We have made a lot of money by not wanting to be fully invested at all times."

Homebuyers who leverage their liquid assets to buy their home outright also avoid being tied to a long and expensive mortgage. With the mortgage rate well over 6% and with little sign of coming down (even with Fed rate cuts), being free of monthly payments and debt is financially lucrative.

Regardless of high rates, the mortgage approval process can be strenuous, with multiple kinds of purchases sinking your mortgage approval. Cutting out lenders benefits both the buyer and the seller, making cash offers more favorable for realtors, a fact particularly relevant in an increasingly competitive market. However, you have to be pretty "upper class" to do so, and in this economy, that's increasingly unlikely.