Cash is king, especially for those buying homes in Florida: Sixty-four percent of all home sales in early 2014 in Florida were cash-only purchases.

New York (59 percent) and Alabama (56 percent) rounded out the top three states with the highest percentage of buyers plopping down cash instead of taking out mortgages to buy residential properties, according to recent figures from RealtyTrac, which tracks and analyzes housing data.

Even in states such as Colorado, where a third of home purchases in the first quarter of 2014 were all-cash transactions, the trend is evident. Greg Smith, a Denver-area broker owner, said “Cash offers are winning the bidding wars” more often.

Nationwide, nearly 43 percent of all home sales in the first quarter of 2014 were all-cash purchases, up from nearly 38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 19 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The figure for the first quarter of 2014 is the highest since RealtyTrac began tracking all-cash sales in 2011.

The average sales price of an all-cash purchase in the first quarter was $207,668, Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said.

Who has enough cash to forgo a mortgage? Analysts say many are baby boomers who have sold homes already paid off and now want to downsize. Retirees who can tap into their retirement accounts also are paying cash for second homes. Other cash-only buyers borrow money from friends and family and then take advantage of a rising market to “flip” the property, repay the loans with the proceeds of the sale, and pocket a profit, Blomquist said.

Blomquist said the high percentage of all-cash buyers indicates the housing market recovery is for real and buyer confidence is restored. “Buyers are willing to put their own money on the line to buy properties instead of borrowing money from others to buy,” he said.