Homeowners Gained Over $1.5 Trillion In Equity During Q4 2020

U.S. homeowners with mortgages saw their equity increase by 16.2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to new data from Corelogic Inc CLGX. This represents a year-over-year average gain of $26,300 per homeowner and a collective equity gain of more than $1.5 trillion.

What Happened: The new data covers approximately 62% of all residential properties. States with strong home price growth and high home prices recorded the greatest equity gains in the fourth quarter, most notably California (with an average equity gain of $54,500), Idaho ($48,500) and Washington ($47,200). At the other end of the spectrum, North Dakota experienced the lowest average equity gain in the fourth quarter with $7,900.

Also in the fourth quarter, negative equity levels decreased year-over-year by 21% to 1.5 million homes, or 2.8% of all mortgaged properties. The national aggregate value of negative equity was approximately $280.2 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, down by approximately $7.5 billion, or 2.6%, from $287.7 billion from one year earlier.

“Compared with a year earlier, home prices in December 2020 were up sharply — 9.2%, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index – boosting the amount of home equity for the average homeowner with a mortgage to more than $200,000,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “This equity growth has enabled many families to finance home remodeling, such as adding an office or study, further contributing to last year’s record level in home improvement spending.”

What Else Happened: Separately, Redfin Corp RDFN reported that asking prices of newly listed homes for the four-week period ending March 7 reached an all-time high of $349,975, up 10% from the same time a year ago.

New listings of homes for sale were down 17% from one year ago while active listings — defined as the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period — plummeted 41% to a new all-time low, marking the largest decrease in the five years that Redfin tracked this data.

During the seven-day period ending March 7, 59% of homes sold in two weeks or less, while 4% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, an all-time high for this measure; 48% sold in one week or less.
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