US Homeowner Equity Is on the Rise as Home Values Increase

Among news of high housing costs and other difficulties in the U.S. housing market, current homeowners could be in a good spot. According to recent insight from CoreLogic’s Homeowner Equity Insights report, very few homeowners today have negative equity. In fact, U.S. homeowners with mortgages saw their equity increase by $1.5 trillion collectively, or nearly 10%, from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024. Additionally, the number of mortgaged properties with negative equity decreased by 2.1% from Q4 2023 and by 16.1% year-over-year. 

Because home equity is affected by home price changes, borrowers with equity positions near (+/- 5%) the negative equity cutoff are most likely to move out of or into negative equity as prices change, respectively. Looking at the first quarter of 2024 book of mortgages, if home prices increase by 5%, 110.000 homes would regain equity; if home prices decline by 5% 153,000 would fall underwater. The CoreLogic HPI Forecast TM projects that home prices will increase by 3.7% from March 2024 to March 2025.

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