The foreclosure moratorium is over now, putting many homeowners at risk. However, unlike the previous recession, homeowners actually have options this time around. Home prices are high, rather than low, meaning home equity has also increased. This will allow many homeowners to sell their homes instead of being foreclosed on.
The average annual gain in equity this year was $51,500, the highest point in the past 11 years. It’s also five times the value last year. Another important statistic is negative equity, which CoreLogic started tracking in 2009. Fewer homes than ever since the statistic has been tracked have negative equity, at only 2.3%. At the state level, Louisiana is somewhat struggling at 7.8% negative equity share. Among metros, Chicago has the highest negative equity share at 5.2%, but also the second lowest amount of negative equity — meaning more people have lost money than average, but those who have haven’t lost very much. Conversely, San Francisco has the lowest negative equity share at 0.6%, but the highest amount of negative equity.
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
More: https://www.corelogic.com/intelligence/strong-home-equity-gains-in-2021-lower-foreclosure-risk/