Equity can be loosely defined as the value of your house minus how much you owe on the mortgage. Which means, as you make your monthly mortgage payments, you’re gaining a larger share of your home’s value. In addition, if your home’s price goes up, so does your equity. Ultimately, the more you have, the better. That’s why the numbers from ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q2 2017 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report are good news for homeowners. The report shows more than 14 million U.S. properties were equity rich, meaning their remaining mortgage amount was 50 percent or less than the estimated value of their house. That’s 320,000 more than the previous quarter and nearly 25 percent of all U.S. properties with a mortgage. Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM, says there are a couple of reasons behind the improvement. “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,” Blomquist says. More here.
