So, You Have a Mortgage? Good News!

Judith Sutton ABR CRS IDS PMN ASP IAHSP SRES GREEN

Judy@JudithSutton.com   908 803-0472

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Good News! for Mortgage Holders! Increased Equity!

Invited Guest Contributor: RISMEDIA

U.S. homeowners with mortgages have seen their equity increase by 29.3% year over year, representing a collective equity gain of over $3.2 trillion, and an average gain of $55,300 per borrower, since the fourth quarter of 2020. Good News! This is according to CoreLogic’s latest  Homeowner Equity Report for the fourth quarter of 2021, released at the beginning of March 2022. Homeowners with mortgages account for roughly 63% of all U.S. properties, according to the report.

Home prices rose 18% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from the 8% annual gain recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020. The appreciation helped push the national negative equity figure to the lowest in over a dozen years.  Here are some facts to consider:

• Quarterly change: From the third quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2021, the total number of mortgaged homes in negative equity decreased by 3% to 1.1 million homes or 2.1% of all mortgaged properties.
• Annual change: In the fourth quarter of 2020, 1.5 million homes, or 2.8% of all mortgaged properties, were in negative equity. This number decreased by 24.9%, or approximately 380,000 properties, by the fourth quarter of 2021.
• Distribution of negative equity: Of loans in negative equity in the fourth quarter of 2021, 42% had a loan-to-value ratio below 125%, and 58% had a loan-to-value ratio of 125% or higher.