During the third quarter, U.S. homeowners collectively saw their equity increase 11.8 percent year-over-year, representing an $870.6 billion gain, according to an analysis by CoreLogic.
CoreLogic’s Q3 2017 Home Equity Analysis found homeowners gained an average of $14,888 in home equity between 2016’s third quarter through this year’s third quarter. No state experienced a decrease in home equity, but western states fared the best. CoreLogic said Washington homeowners gained an average of about $40,000 in home equity and California homeowners gained an average of about $37,000 in home equity.
Additionally, CoreLogic found the percentage of mortgaged homes with negative equity decreased year-over-year to 22 percent or 6.3 percent of all mortgaged properties.
“Homeowner equity increased by almost $871 billion over the last 12 months, the largest increase in more than three years,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a release. “This increase is primarily a reflection of rising home prices, which drives up home values, leading to an increase in home equity positions and supporting consumer spending.”
CoreLogic’s analysis found that the national aggregate value of negative equity was approximately $275.7 billion at the end of the third quarter, down 3.2 percent compared with second quarter of 2017 and down 3.3 percent from one year ago.
“While homeowner equity is rising nationally, there are wide disparities by geography,” CoreLogic President and CEO Frank Martell said. “Hot markets like San Francisco, Seattle and Denver boast very high levels of increased home equity. However, some markets are lagging behind due to weaker economies or lingering effects from the great recession. These include large markets such as Miami, Las Vegas and Chicago, but also many small- and medium-sized markets such as Scranton, Pa. and Akron, Ohio.”