- The average homeowner in the United States with a mortgage experienced a decline in home equity for the first time in over a decade.
- According to CoreLogic, the average homeowner equity per borrower dropped by 1.9% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
- Despite the overall decline in home equity, the number of homeowners who were “underwater” on their mortgage, owing more than their homes are worth, remained relatively steady at 1.2 million homes or about 2.1% of properties with a mortgage.
For the first time in more than a decade, the average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage has less home equity than they did a year earlier.
Among the roughly 63% of U.S. homes with a mortgage, average homeowner equity per borrower was $274,070 in the first quarter, down 1.9% from the same quarter last year, according to real estate data tracker CoreLogic.
The last time average homeowner equity fell year-over-year was in the first quarter of 2012, when the housing market was still regaining its footing after the mortgage meltdown and ensuing foreclosure crisis that helped trigger the Great Recession.
All told, U.S. homeowners with a mortgage lost a combined $108.4 billion in home equity between the first quarter of last year and the first three months of 2023, a drop of 0.7%, according to CoreLogic.
Homeowner equity, which represents the current value of the property minus what’s still owed on the mortgage, tends to rise and fall along with home prices.
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In the first quarter of 2012, it averaged $75,130. It then climbed sharply in the years that followed as rock-bottom mortgage rates and a chronic shortage of properties for sale superheated the market for homes. Prices soared, and by the second quarter of last year, average U.S. homeowner equity reached a record-high $297,510, according to CoreLogic.
But starting a little over a year ago, the housing market has since slowed,…
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