Almost 25% of homeowners in MA are living mortgage free -nearly 30% of homeowners nationwide are doing the same...in MA the Cape, Islands and Berkshires are leading the way

Just about 30 percent of all homeowners nationwide now own their homes outright, Zillow reports. That's 20.6 million people.

In the Greater Boston area, the land of the jumbo mortgage, where home prices are perpetually high (inflated), that number of homeowners without debt is somewhat smaller but still substantial, weighing in at 24.6 percent.

Areas of the state with more retirees , such as the Cape and the Islands, have a higher percentage of homeowners living mortgage free. Homeowners who either bought their castles with cash or paid off their mortgages account for 33.5 percent of the total on the Cape, 32.5 percent on Martha's Vineyard and more than 33 percent in the Berkshires.

One of the more surprising findings: Homeowners in the 20-to-24 age group are more likely to be free of a mortgage than any other group, at more than 34 percent. Of course, there are not that many homeowners out there in their college years, and if they are, mommy and daddy probably picked up the tab.

Anyway, it's a good bet that some of your neighbors are living mortgage-free, having paid off their homes.