Equity Rich U.S. Properties Increase To New High Of 14.5 Million In Q3 2018

Equity Rich Properties Represent 25.7 Percent of U.S. Properties; Share of Seriously Underwater Properties Drops to 8.8 Percent; Report Includes Home Equity Breakdown by Zip Code

News Release from ATTOM Data Solutions

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 8, 2018  -- ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's premier property database, today released its Q3 2018 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that in the third quarter of 2018, nearly 14.5 million U.S. properties were equity rich — where the combined estimated amount of loans secured by the property was 50 percent or less of the property's estimated market value — up by more than 433,000 from a year ago to a new high as far back as data is available, Q4 2013.

The 14.5 million equity rich properties in Q3 2018 represented 25.7 percent of all properties with a mortgage, up from 24.9 percent in the previous quarter but down from 26.4 percent in Q3 2017.

The report also shows more than 4.9 million U.S. properties were seriously underwater — where the combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property was at least 25 percent higher than the property's estimated market value, representing 8.8 percent of all U.S. properties with a mortgage. That 8.8 percent share of seriously underwater homes was down from 9.3 percent in the previous quarter but still up from 8.7 percent in Q3 2017.

"As homeowners stay put longer, they continue to build more equity in their homes despite the recent slowing in rates of home price appreciation," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president with ATTOM Data Solutions. "West coast markets along with New York have the highest share of equity rich homeowners while markets in the Mississippi Valley and Rust Belt continue to have stubbornly high rates of seriously underwater homeowners when it comes to home equity."

Q3 2018 U.S. Home Equity Heat Map

Highest seriously underwater share in Louisiana, Mississippi, Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois
States with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were Louisiana (21.3 percent); Mississippi (16.2 percent); Iowa (15.5 percent); Arkansas (15.3 percent); and Illinois (15.1 percent).

Among 98 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report, those with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were Baton Rouge, Louisiana (20.7 percent); Youngstown, Ohio (18.7 percent); New Orleans, Louisiana (18.6 percent); Scranton, Pennsylvania (18.3 percent); and Toledo, Ohio (17.7 percent).

26 zip codes where more than half of all properties are seriously underwater
Among 7,290 U.S. zip codes with at least 2,500 properties with mortgages, there were 26 zip codes where more than half of all properties with a mortgage were seriously underwater, including zip codes in the Detroit, Milwaukee, Saint Louis, Atlantic City and Cleveland metropolitan statistical areas.

The top five zip codes with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were 08611 in Trenton, New Jersey (71.0 percent seriously underwater); 63137 in Saint Louis, Missouri (66.5 percent); 60426 in Harvey, Illinois (64.2 percent); 38106 in Memphis, Tennessee (60.7 percent); and 44105 in Cleveland, Ohio (59.2 percent).

Q3 2018 Underwater Properties by Zip Code

Highest equity rich share in California, Hawaii, Washington, New York, Oregon
States with the highest share of equity rich properties were California (42.5 percent); Hawaii (39.4 percent); Washington(35.3 percent); New York (34.9 percent); and Oregon (33.6 percent).

Among 98 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report, those with the highest share of equity rich properties were San Jose, California (73.9 percent); San Francisco, California (59.8 percent); Los Angeles, California (47.6 percent); Seattle, Washington (41.2 percent); and Honolulu, Hawaii (40.8 percent).

417 zip codes where more than half of all properties are equity rich
Among 7,290 U.S. zip codes with at least 2,500 properties with mortgages, there were 417 zip codes where more than half of all properties with a mortgage were equity rich.

The top five zip codes with the highest share of equity rich properties were all in the California Bay area: 94087 in Sunnyvale (87.1 percent equity rich); 94085 in Sunnyvale (86.7 percent equity rich); 94086 in Sunnyvale (86.7 percent equity rich); 94063 in Redwood City (85.9 percent equity rich); and 95130 in San Jose (85.7 percent equity rich).

Q3 2018 Equity Rich Properties by Zip

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Report methodology
The ATTOM Data Solutions U.S. Home Equity & Underwater report provides counts of properties based on several categories of equity — or loan to value (LTV) — at the state, metro,  county and zip code level, along with the percentage of total properties with a mortgage that each equity category represents. The equity/LTV is calculated based on record-level loan model estimating position and amount of loans secured by a property and a record-level automated valuation model (AVM) derived from publicly recorded mortgage and deed of trust data collected and licensed by ATTOM Data Solutions nationwide for more than 155 million U.S. properties.

Definitions
Seriously underwater: Loan to value ratio of 125 percent or above, meaning the property owner owed at least 25 percent more than the estimated market value of the property.

Equity rich: Loan to value ratio of 50 percent or lower, meaning the property owner had at least 50 percent equity.

About ATTOM Data Solutions
ATTOM Data Solutions provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation's population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes and enhances the data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 9TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licenses, APIs, market trends, marketing lists, match & append and more.