U.S. Homeowners Experience an Equity Increase of 29.3% Year-Over-Year in Q4 2021

On Thursday (3-10-22), CoreLogic® released its Homeowner Equity Report (HER) for Q4 2021. The HER shows that U.S. homeowners with mortgages experienced a year-over-year increase in equity by 29.3%. This number represents an overall equity gain of more than $3.2 trillion, and an average gain of $55,300 per borrower since Q4 of 2020.

According to CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index, year-over-year price appreciation also increased by 19.1% in January 2022, although growth is projected to slow gradually over the next year.

Nationwide, home prices rose 18% year-over-year in Q4 2021, up from the 8% annual gain recorded in Q4 2020. The appreciation helped push the national negative equity figure to the lowest in more than a decade, with only 1.1 million homeowners underwater on their mortgages. Western state homeowners saw the biggest equity gains by dollar value, led by Hawaii, California, and Washington.

In remarks prepared for the Q4 HER release, Dr. Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist for CoreLogic said, “Home prices rose 18% during 2021 in the CoreLogic Home Price Index, the largest annual gain recorded in its 45-year history, generating a big increase in home equity wealth. For low- and moderate-income homeowners, home equity has historically been a major source of wealth.”