According to ATTOM Data Solutions’ just off the presses Q3 2018 Home Equity and Underwater Report, there are now more equity rich properties in the US than ever before…14.5M equity rich properties representing 25.7% of all US properties.
(Equity rich properties are defined as those where combined estimated amounts of loans secured by the property are 50% or higher than the property’s estimated market value.)
The highest equity shares are in these states:
- California – 42.5%
- Hawaii – 39.4%
- Washington – 35.3%
- New York – 34.9%
- Oregon – 33.6%
Of the 96 metros covered by ATTOM, here are those with the highest shares of equity rich properties:
- San Jose – 73.9%
- San Francisco – 59.8%
- Los Angeles – 47.6%
- Seattle – 41.2%
- Honolulu – 40.8%
Getting even more specific, the top five zip codes with the highest shares of equity rich properties are all in California’s Bay Area:
- 94087 – Sunnyvale – 87.1%
- ‘94085 – Sunnyvale – 86.7%
- 94086 – Sunnyvale – 86.7%
- 94063 – Redwood City – 85.9%
- 95139 – San Jose – 85.7%
ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q3 2018 Home Equity and Underwater Report also indicated that the share of seriously underwater properties dropped to 8.8% of all US properties. This 8.8 percentage of underwater properties, or 4.9M with a combined estimated balance of loans at least +25% higher than the property’s estimated market value, represents 25.7% of all US properties with a mortgage.
States with the highest shares of underwater properties are
- Louisiana – 212.3%
- Mississippi – 16.2%
- Ohio – 15.5%
- Arkansas – 15.3%
- Illinois – 15.1%
Metros with the highest shares of underwater properties are
- Baton Rouge, LS – 20.7%
- Youngstown, OH – 18.7%
- New Orleans, LS – 18.6%
- Scranton, PN – 18.3%
- Toledo, OH – 17.7%
The zip codes where more than 50% of all properties are underwater live in Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Atlantic City and Cleveland.
Daren Blomquist, senior vice president of ATTOM Data Solutions, said, “As homeowners stay put longer, they continue to build more equity in their homes despite recent slowing the rates of home price appreciation. West Coast markets and New York have the highest share of equity rich homeowners while markets in the Mississippi Valley and the Rust Belt continue to have stubbornly high rates of seriously underwater homeowners when it comes to home equity.”
