As the American housing market tries to regain its mojo, a lot of cash exchanged hands in the purchase of homes in December 2013:

In December, 42.1 percent of all residential property sales in the U.S. were paid for in cash, according to RealtyTrac, a housing data firm. Several circumstances drove this eye-catching figure, including higher mortgage rates and tougher lending standards.

Then there are the institutional investors, those newish guys on the block who have been bringing cash to the table to buy literally hundreds of thousands of single-family homes that they will turn into rentals.

Since the average American doesn’t have the cash to make this sort of transaction, it seems like this many cash purchases would skew the market. It would be interesting to then see: (1) where cash purchases are more common and (2) the kinds of real estate properties are most commonly purchased in cash. If I had to guess the answers to these two, I would think coastal cities and plenty of high-rise condos.