I have heard conflicting stories about how some buyers have so much cash on hand. One popular way is the death of a parent/ estate inheritance. There are plenty (enough of them, I suppose) older parents who live in un-desirable places, like Connecticut. When they die, their kids (usually only one or two), sell the house or rent it out. Not only that, but the older generation were really good at saving for obvious reasons. Before, the kids would move into their parents’ house because they always stayed in the same community but now, with a stream of younger people desiring to move to urbanized areas and such, they would never dream about returning to live where they grew up. But that is only one such thing I have heard for why a good portion of younger buyers have so much cash on hand.

TL;DR: Suburban kids sell their parents homes after their parents die and use that cash to buy homes in cities because they don’t want to live in the community where they grew up. And their dead parents probably left them a hefty inheritance as well.