After the fall of 2007 where the real estate market ballooned and then the bottom fell out, a lot of homeowners who bought during the boom time were left with little to no equity on their homes for several years after. These types of homeowners are often referred to as being “underwater” or “upside down” on their mortgages because they owe a lot more than their homes are worth.
CoreLogic has released their report on Homeowner Equity Insights for the second quarter of 2018. Nationally, homeowners with mortgages have seen an equity increase of around $981 billion since the second quarter of 2017*. This is an increase of 12.3 percent between 2017 and 2018. Conversely, homeowners are emerging from the negative equity trap. As of the second quarter of 2018, the total number of negative equity mortgage residential properties decreased by 9 percent from the first quarter of 2017. When we compare the second quarter of 2017 to now, negative equity decreased 20.1 percent on all mortgage properties.
Home Equity Wealth – $16.2K – Average gain in home equity wealth this quarter
CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft stated, “Homeowner properties continued to increase in value this quarter with homeowners gaining an average of $16,200 in home equity wealth. When aggregated across all homeowners, that totals almost $1 trillion in gains in home equity wealth. This wealth gain will support additional consumption spending and home improvement expenditures in coming years.”
Negative equity peaked at 26 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the fourth quarter of 2009 reported CoreLogic who started tracking negative equity in the third quarter of 2009. South Carolina fares well with a 3.28 percent negative equity share compared nationally. Our sister state, North Carolina sits higher at 3.3 percent and our southern border Georgia is also higher at 3.8 percent. The average equity gain for South Carolina homeowners is a bit over $10K. If inventory continues to stay low, this average equity gain will only increase. It will be interesting to see where 2018 ends.
Homeowner Equity – Negative equity levels continue to drop
CoreLogic President and CEO Frank Martell states, “Negative equity levels continue to drop across the U.S. with the biggest declines in areas with strong price appreciation. Further, the relatively low level of shadow inventory contributes to the chronic shortage of housing supply and price increases in many markets.”
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*Homeownership mortgage source: 2016 American Community Survey.