You may be surprised by the answer! CoreLogic’s recent Equity Report revealed that 675,000 US homeowners regained positive equity in their homes in 2017. This is great news for the country as 95.1% of all mortgaged properties are now in a positive equity situation.
The report found that U.S. homeowners with mortgages (roughly 63% of all properties) have seen their equity increase by a total of $908.4 billion since the 4th quarter of 2016, an increase of 12.2% year over year.
Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic’s chief economist, said this increase in equity is the biggest calendar-year increase since 2013.
While this is great news for homeowners, a study by Fannie Mae suggests that many homeowners aren’t aware that they’ve regained equity in their homes as their investment has increased in value.
For example, the study showed that 23% of Americans still believe their home is in a negative equity position, while in actuality, only 4.9% of homeowners are in that position. Additionally, only 37% of Americans believe they have “significant equity” in their homes when actually 83% do!
Homeowners who underestimate their homes’ values not only underestimate their equity, they also underestimate how large a down payment they could make with their home equity, their chances of qualifying for mortgages, and as a result, their opportunities for selling their current homes, & for buying different ones.
Would you live to know how much equity you have? Or what the current value of your home is? Give us a call at 562-243-5948 and we’d be happy to put together a custom report for you.
