Skip to main content

Tappable Equity Hits 10-Year High

Apr 03, 2017
Today's first-time homebuyer is older and more likely to be single than first-time homebuyers in the 1970s and 1980s, according to a new Zillow analysis

An annual home price appreciation of 5.5 percent during 2016 helped to increase the number of mortgage holders with tappable equity to 39.5 million, according to new data from Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS). More than two-thirds of the tappable equity level belongs to borrowers with current interest rates below today’s 30-year interest rate.
 
Tappable equity—which is defined as the amount of lendable equity available to a borrower before hitting a combined loan-to-value ratio of 80 percent—reached the $4.7 trillion mark last year. An equity growth of $570 billion throughout 2016 pushed the total equity level to its highest level since 2006.
 
“Cash-out refinance data suggests that they have been increasingly tapping that equity, though perhaps more conservatively than homeowners had in the past,” said Black Knight Data & Analytics Executive Vice President Ben Graboske. “In the fourth quarter of 2016, $31 billion in equity was extracted from the market via first lien refinances. While that was the most equity drawn in over eight years, borrowers are still tapping equity at less than a third of the rate they were back in 2005, and they’re doing so more prudently. In fact, the resulting post-cash-out loan-to-value-ratio was 65.6 percent, the lowest on record.”
About the author
Published
Apr 03, 2017
Mass Firings At CFPB Imminent, Filing Says

Unions representing CFPB employees said 95% of the Bureau's workforce could be cut by the weekend

Feb 14, 2025
Realty Fees On The Rebound

Real estate commissions are trending back up, post-NAR settlement.

Feb 13, 2025
Wire Fraud Losses Are Mounting

First-time homebuyers are especially at risk for wire fraud, report finds.

Feb 13, 2025
HUD Secretary Halts Equal Access Rule Enforcement

HUD to be transformed 'in His own image'

Feb 10, 2025
Rocket's All-American Return To The Super Bowl

The company spends millions to remind Americans of "the meaning of home."

Feb 10, 2025
Homebuilders Cheer Delay Of Trump Trade War

Canada and Mexico stave off tariffs on billions of dollars of materials crucial to the U.S. homebuilding industry

Feb 04, 2025