ATTOM has released its Q4 2024 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 47.7% of mortgaged residential properties in the U.S. were considered equity-rich in the fourth quarter, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market values.
That level was down slightly from 48.3% in Q3 of 2024, and from a recent peak of 49.2% in the prior three-month period. However, it was still up from 46.1% in Q4 of 2023, and remained at historically high levels that again showed one of the most profound benefits of the nation’s 13-year housing market boom.
The same holding pattern continued for the portion of home mortgages that were seriously underwater. Just 2.5% of mortgaged homes fell into that category during Q4 of 2024, with combined estimated balances of loans secured by properties that were at least 25% more than those properties’ estimated market values. That was the same as in Q3, and almost unchanged from the 2.6% level recorded in late 2023.
“The last few months of 2024 marked pretty much a holding pattern for the housing market. That’s typical for the slower Fall home buying season. But it certainly wasn’t a downer for homeowners across the country who are sitting on historically high levels of property equity thanks in large part to the endless increases in home values over more than a decade,” said Rob Barber, CEO for ATTOM. “Nearly half of all residential mortgage payers in the U.S. have paid off at least half their loans, leaving many with six-figures levels of wealth available to leverage anything from new home purchases to starting new businesses to paying off major expenses.”
A Regional Roundup
The portion of mortgaged homes that were equity-rich during Q4 of 2024, 47.7%, remained far above the 26.5% level recorded in early 2020. While the latest figure was down in 33 of the 50 U.S. states from Q3 to Q4 of 2024, mostly by less than two percentage points, it was still up annually in 41 states.
Annual increases were spread across almost all regions and price segments of the U.S. housing market, with the most benefit going to low- and mid-priced markets around the country concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast regions. However, there were signs of that pattern as those areas absorbed slightly larger quarterly drop-offs reversing late in the year.
The annual increases were led by Rhode Island (portion of mortgaged homes considered equity-rich increased from 54.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 60.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024), Missouri (up from 37.3 percent to 43 percent), Connecticut (up from 42.4 percent to 47.9 percent), New Jersey (up from 46.8 percent to 52.3 percent) and Illinois (up from 28 percent to 33 percent).
On the opposite side of the spectrum, equity-rich levels generally declined slightly across western states. The largest year-over-year fallbacks during the fourth quarter came in Florida (down, year over year, from 54.3 percent to 50.9 percent), Utah (down from 53.7 percent to 51.1 percent), Arizona (down from 52.7 percent to 50.9 percent), Oregon (down from 51.2 percent to 49.6 percent) and Idaho (down from 57.6 percent to 56.1 percent).
Seriously Underwater Mortgage Rates
The portion of mortgaged homes considered seriously underwater across the U.S. barely changed during the fourth quarter of 2024. It stood at one in 39, which was nearly the same as levels of one in 40 during the third quarter and one in 38 a year earlier. The latest ratio remained far better than the one-in-15 portion recorded in 2020.
The rate worsened in 36 states quarterly, by less than one percentage point in all of those, while it was better annually in 34.
The biggest annual improvements in seriously underwater mortgages came in Wyoming (share of mortgaged homes that were seriously underwater down from 8.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024), Mississippi (down from 8 percent to 6.4 percent), Louisiana (down from 10.9 percent to 9.5 percent), Missouri (down from 5.6 percent to 4.5 percent) and Illinois (down from 5.1 percent to 4.5 percent).
The largest year-over-year increases in the percentage of seriously underwater homes during the fourth quarter of 2024 were in Kansas (up from 2.8 percent to 4.4 percent), Utah (up from 2 percent to 2.5 percent), Idaho (up from 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent), Georgia (up from 2.5 percent to 2.8 percent) and Florida (up from 1.3 percent to 1.6 percent).
Click here for more on ATTOM’s look at equity in U.S. homes.
