HOMEOWNER EQUITY KEEPS GROWING ACROSS U.S. IN THIRD QUARTER DESPITE HOUSING MARKET SLOWDOWN
Small Equity Gain Results in Nearly Half of U.S. Mortgaged Homes Now Considered Equity-Rich; Seriously Underwater Portion of Mortgages Stays Just Below 3 Percent; Seventeen Times as Many Mortgages are Equity Rich versus Seriously Underwater ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, released its third-quarter 2022 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 48.5 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the United States were considered equity-rich in the third quarter, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than 50 percent of their estimated market values. The portion of mortgaged homes that were equity-rich in the third quarter of 2022 increased from 48.1 percent in the second quarter of 2022 and from 39.5 percent in the third quarter of 2021. The latest increase fell below other gains in recent years. But it still marked the 10th straight quarterly rise, and resulted in virtually half of all mortgage payers landing in equity-rich territory. The report found that at least half of all mortgage-payers in 20 states were equity-rich in the third quarter, compared to only seven states a year earlier. “Even though home price appreciation has slowed down dramatically in recent months, homeowners have continued to build equity,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. “And it appears that many of those homeowners have decided to stay where they are rather than purchase a new home, and are beginning to tap into that equity, as the number of home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) issued in the second quarter of 2022 rose by 43 percent from the prior year.” The report also shows that just 2.9 percent of mortgaged homes, or one in 35, were considered seriously underwater in the third quarter of 2022, with a combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property of at least 25 percent more than the property’s estimated market value. The latest seriously underwater figure was the same as the 2.9 percent recorded in the prior quarter, but down from 3.4 percent, or one in 29 properties, in the third quarter of 2021. Overall, 94.3 homeowners paying off mortgages had at least some equity built up in the third quarter of this year, compared to 92.9 percent a year earlier and 87.7 percent in the third quarter of 2020. That level rises further when accounting for homeowners who have paid off their mortgages. Across the country, 39 states saw equity-rich levels increase from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022, while seriously underwater percentages dipped in 38 states. Year over year, equity-rich levels rose in all 50 states and seriously underwater portions dropped in 43 states. The ongoing, but relatively small, improvement in home equity during the third quarter of 2022 came as the U.S. housing market cooled considerably amid multiple forces that threaten to stifle or reverse an 11-year run of nearly uninterrupted price spikes and equity gains. Largest increases in equity-rich share of mortgages spread across Midwest, Northeast and South Nine of the 10 states where the equity-rich share of mortgaged homes increased most from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022 were in the Midwest, Northeast and South regions of the U.S. The biggest increases were in South Dakota, where the portion of mortgaged homes considered equity-rich rose from 36.7 percent in the second quarter to 41.8 percent in the third quarter, Vermont (up from 71.4 percent to 75.9 percent), Montana (up from 48.1 percent to 51.5 percent), Indiana (up from 43 percent to 46.2 percent) and Mississippi (up from 29.1 percent to 31.5 percent). The top five states where the equity-rich share of mortgaged homes decreased the most from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year were all in the West, led by Idaho (down from 69.5 percent to 65.8 percent), California (down from 63.1 percent to 60.6 percent), Utah (down from 64.3 percent to 62 percent), Washington (down from 63.2 percent to 61 percent) and Arizona (down from 64.8 percent to 63.4 percent). Largest declines in seriously underwater properties located across Midwest, Northeast and West The top 10 states with the biggest decreases in the percentage of mortgaged homes considered seriously underwater from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022 were spread across the Midwest, Northeast and West. They were led by Wyoming (share of mortgaged homes seriously underwater down from 7 percent to 2.9 percent), Montana (down from 3.9 percent to 3 percent), Kansas (down from 5.7 percent to 4.9 percent), Indiana (down from 3.8 percent to 3.1 percent) and Connecticut (down from 3.3 percent to 2.8 percent). States where the percentage of seriously underwater homes increased the most from the second quarter to the third quarter of this year were concentrated in the West. While most of the increases were minimal, the largest were in Mississippi (up from 8.1 percent to 9 percent), California (up from 1 percent to 1.4 percent), Idaho (up from 1.6 percent to 1.9 percent), Hawaii (up from 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent) and Washington (up from 1 percent to 1.2 percent). Equity-rich homeowners still concentrated in West The highest levels of equity-rich properties around the U.S. remained in the West during the third quarter of 2022, with six of the top 10 states located in that region. The top states were Vermont (75.9 percent of mortgaged homes were equity-rich), Idaho (65.8 percent), Arizona (63.4 percent), Florida (62.8 percent) and Utah (62 percent). Nine of the 10 states with the lowest percentages of equity-rich properties in the third quarter of 2022 were in the Midwest and South. The smallest portions were in Louisiana (24.5 percent of mortgaged homes), Illinois (26.3 percent), Alaska (26.7 percent), West Virginia (29.3 percent) and North Dakota (30.9 percent). Among 107 metropolitan statistical areas around the nation with a population greater than 500,000, both the West and South dominated the list with the highest portion of mortgaged properties that were equity-rich in the third quarter of 2022. All but one of the top 25 were in those regions, led by Austin, TX (71.6 percent equity-rich); Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (71.6 percent); San Jose, CA (70.6 percent); Fort Myers, FL (68.5 percent) and Tampa, FL (68.3 percent). The leader in the Northeast region again was Portland, ME (63 percent) while the top metro in the Midwest continued to be Grand Rapids, MI (51.9 percent).
Read More