14 million US homes are equity rich

The number of US homes which have at least 50% equity has reached more than 14 million

14 million US homes are equity rich
The number of US homes which have at least 50% equity has reached more than 14 million.

The figures from ATTOM Data Solutions show that 14,038,370 US properties were equity rich at the end of the second quarter of 2017- that's 24.6% of all US properties with a mortgage.

The share of equity rich homes increased from 24.3% in the first quarter of 2017 and from 22.1% in the second quarter of 2016.

However, 5.4 million properties remain seriously underwater; that's 9.5% of all properties with a mortgage, a slight decrease from the 9.7% in the first quarter of the year and down from 11.9% in the second quarter of 2016.

“An increasing number of US homeowners are amassing impressive stockpiles of home equity wealth, enjoying the benefits of rapidly rising home prices while staying conservative when it comes to cashing out on their equity,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions.

“However, this home equity wealth is unevenly distributed across different geographies, value ranges, occupancy statuses and lengths of ownership, with a disproportionately high equity rich share among high-end properties, investor-owned properties and properties owned for more than 20 years,” he added.

Hawaii was the state with the highest share of equity rich properties at 38.3% followed by California (36.6%), New York (34.2%), Vermont (33.5%) and Oregon 32.2%.

Of the 91 metros with populations of a least half a million, the highest shares of equity rich homes were in San Jose, CA (52%), San Francisco (47%), Los Angeles (40%) and Honolulu (40%).