The 2024 home price growth has been very good news for homeowners, much to the frustration of would-be buyers. And though U.S. home price growth slowed modestly on an annual basis in March, according to the ICE Home Price Index it did mark the third consecutive occurrence of above-average monthly gains. In turn, homeowners are now looking at a record $11 trillion in tappable equity.
“Homeowners with mortgages closed out the first quarter of 2024 with just a hair under $17 trillion in home equity—an all-time high,” said Andy Walden, ICE’s Vice President of Enterprise Research Strategy. “Of that, a record $11 trillion is tappable, meaning available for a homeowner to leverage while retaining a 20 percent equity cushion in the property. On average, that works out to roughly $206K in tappable equity per mortgage holder.”
Some 48 million mortgage holders have some amount of tappable equity in their homes that could be accessed even under relatively conservative combined loan-to-value ratio limits, according to ICE. In fact, just five West Coast markets—including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego—account for nearly a quarter of all tappable equity that’s available. Seattle rounds out the list.
“We’re still very much in a hole from an inventory perspective, but that deficit has fallen from 50 percent a year ago to 38 percent in March,” Walden said. Today, with 3.3 months of supply, inventory is still historically low and indicative of a seller’s market. This is helping to keep home price growth resilient even though demand is down.”
The ICE Home Price Index for March shows that the northeastern U.S. is continuing to experience the strongest monthly price gains. Meanwhile, each of Florida’s nine largest markets saw seasonally adjusted prices edge lower.
Be the first one to reply
Your Reply