National Equity Grew 49 Percent in Nearly 7 Years

Since February 2012, American homeowners have gained a collective 49 percent in total home equity, standing today at $33.3 trillion. Equity grew 6.8 percent in 2018.

California accounts for one-third of the $10.9 trillion in equity gained over the past seven years, and contains four out of the 10 most valuable markets in the country: Los Angeles, up 5.2 percent to $2.9 trillion in value, San Diego grew 3.4 percent to $673.5 billion, San Francisco gained 9.3 percent to $1.6 trillion, and San Jose's value increased 10.4 percent to $799.6 billion. The most valuable single market in the nation is the New York metropolitan area, at $3 trillion, a 9.1 percent share of total national home equity, according to Zillow data.

These numbers are so gargantuan that it’s tricky to put them in perspective. For example, even the total cinematic earnings from top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time – including Avatar, Titanic, three Avengers movies, Black Panther, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – total $17.9 billion, a drop in the housing market bucket. And Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth of $160 billion is still only about half Detroit’s $314.9 billion housing value.

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