About six out of 10 homeowners with mortgages experienced year-over-year equity increases of more than 10 percent, according to an analysis by CoreLogic.
However, CoreLogic’s Q2 2017 Home Equity analysis also found that 2.8 million residential properties still have mortgages with negative equity, even as the number of underwater homes nationwide decreased by 22 percent year-over-year.
“Over the last 12 months, approximately 750,000 borrowers achieved positive equity,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a release. “This means that mortgage risk continues to decline and, given the continued strength in home prices, CoreLogic expects home equity to rise steadily over the next year.”
CoreLogic’s analysis found that 63 percent of all homeowners saw their equity increase by a total of 10.6 percent year over year, producing an equity gain of $766 billion since the second quarter of 2016. Homeowners gained an average of $12,987 in equity between last year’s second quarter and this year’s.
Equity gains were largest in the west, with Washington homeowners gaining an average of about $40,000 in home equity and California homeowners gaining an average of approximately $30,000 in home equity
Residential properties with negative equity decreased 10 percent year-over-year. Still. CoreLogic said 2.8 million homes, or 5.4 percent of all mortgaged properties had negative equity during this year’s second quarter. The percentage of homes with negative equity peaked in 2004 at 26 percent.
“Homeowner equity reached $8 trillion in the second quarter of 2017, which is more than double the level just five years ago,” CoreLogic President and CEO Frank Martell said. “The rapid rise in homeowner equity not only reduces mortgage risk, but also supports consumer spending and economic growth.”
The reported identified the metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of residential properties with negative equity as Miami (14.7 percent); Las Vegas (12.2 percent); Chicago (10.8); Washington, D.C. (7.2 percent); New York, including Jersey City, N.J., and White Plains, N.Y. (5.8 percent; and Boston (3.9 percent).