Number of Equity Rich Properties Hits 14 Million in Q2

Home equity is growing as home prices rise across the U.S., and the number of equity-rich properties increased by 1.6 million from last year, according to the Q2 2017 U.S. Home Equity and Underwater report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a multi-sourced property database.

By the end of the second quarter, ATTOM recorded more than 14 million equity-rich properties, properties where the combined loan amount secured by the property was 50% or less than the estimated market value.

This increase is up by nearly 320,000 properties from the previous quarter and up 1.6 million properties from last year to 24.6% of all U.S. properties. This is up from 24.3% of properties last quarter and 22.1% of properties last year.

The report is based on publicly recorded mortgage and deed of trust data collected and licensed by ATTOM Data Solutions nationwide along with an industry standard automated valuation model updated monthly in the ATTOM Data Warehouse of more than 150 million U.S. Properties.

The report showed that about 5.4 million U.S. properties remain seriously underwater, where the combined loan amount secured by the property was at least 25% higher than the property’s estimated market value, by the end of the second quarter of 2017. This is down 64,000 from the previous quarter and 1.2 million from last year.

These properties represented 9.5% of all properties with a mortgage, down from 9.7% in the previous quarter and 11.9% from the second quarter 2016.

“An increasing number of U.S. homeowners are amassing impressive stockpiles of home equity wealth, enjoying the benefits of rapidly rising home prices while staying conservative when it comes to cashing out on their equity, homeowners are staying in their homes nearly twice as long before selling as they were prior to the Great Recession, and the volume of home equity lines of credit are running about one-third of the level they were at during the last housing boom,” ATTOM Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said.

“However, this home equity wealth is unevenly distributed across different geographies, value ranges, occupancy statuses and lengths of ownership, with a disproportionately high equity-rich share among high-end properties, investor-owned properties and properties owned for more than 20 years,” Blomquist said.