Roughly 63 percent of U.S. homeowners have mortgages. Given that large percentage, its important to understand what the equity positions in their homes look like to assess real estate fundamentals. The good news for us is that according to CoreLogic, homeowners with mortgages saw their equity in their homes rise by almost $1 trillion (12.3%) in the last year. That points to a healthier market.
While it is great to know that equity positions continue to improve, its also important to dig a little deeper. We need to understand what percent of properties have mortgages that exceed their property values. In other words, what percent of homes have negative equity. That has also been trending in the right way, with a 9% decrease in the last quarter (20% in the past year). That said, there are still a ton of homes (approximately 2.2 million) with negative equity.
If you were to total up all the negative equity in homes across the United States, you would get a number approaching $280 billion. The good news is that number is down by about $5.5 billion over the last quarter. About $20 billion of the $280 billion in negative resides with us in Florida (7.2%).
Looking at the latest quarterly statistics, we find that the average homeowner in the United States saw a $16,200 increase in their equity positions in their homes over the last year. That is wonderful news. Looking a little deeper at individual states, we see California leading the way with homeowners seeing their equity positions increase by a whopping $48,000 over the last year. On the other side of the coin, three states actually saw decreases in equity positions (Connecticut, Louisiana and North Dakota). Good luck finding the connection amongst those three states.
So, what about Florida? CoreLogic statistics show that Florida homeowners saw their average equity positions raise just over $13,000 in the past year. That is a nice increase to the net worth positions of every homeowner and shows why it still pays to own your home in our market. Let me know if you have any questions.