Homeowner equity continued to increase in the third quarter of 2019, according to the analysis from CoreLogic, a property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider.

Homeowners with a mortgage – about 64% of all homeowners – saw their equity increase by 5.1%, a total of nearly $457 billion, since the third quarter of last year (2018).

Across the country, the total number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity decreased by 4% from the second quarter to 2 million homes or 3.7% of all mortgaged properties. This is a decline of 10% from 2.2 million homes in the third quarter of last year.
Frank Martell, CoreLogic’s president, and CEO said negative equity, which has fallen significantly throughout 2018, continues to decline thanks to the housing market’s rising home price appreciation.

“Ten years ago, during the depths of the Great Recession, more than 11 million homeowners had negative equity or 25% of mortgaged homes,” said Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic’s chief economist. “After more than eight years of rising home prices and employment growth, underwater owners have been slashed to just 2 million, or less than 4% of mortgaged homes.”

This chart shows the equity growth of the nation’s largest housing markets:

Image courtesy of CoreLogic

NOTE: The CoreLogic HPI is based on public record, servicing and securities real-estate databases and incorporates more than 40 years of repeat-sales transactions for analyzing home price trends.
Source: Housingwire.com, Alcynna Lloyd