Skip to main content

The Dynamics of Home Equity



For many people, their home is their largest asset and their best performing investment.  The equity in a home is the difference in what it is worth and what is owed.  Two dynamics, appreciation and unpaid balance, work in concert to make homeowner's equity grow.

It can be said that you appreciate the fact that your home is your best financial investment.  It is also ironic that the appreciation, the increase in value, is what causes it to be your best financial investment.

In a one-year period, the increase in value divided by the beginning value will determine the rate of appreciation for the year.  News stories and articles, frequently, report statistics on appreciation for the month, the year or longer. In many cases, a national appreciation is mentioned but the local appreciation is more reflective of an individual property.

The National Association of REALTORS® reports "The median existing-home price2 for all housing types in June was $363,300, up 23.4% from June 2020 ($294,400), as every region recorded price jumps. This marks 112 straight months of year-over-year gains."

The low inventory being experienced nationwide has caused some significant appreciation that has increased homeowners' equity.  According to Black Knight, a mortgage technology and research firm, at the end of 2020, roughly 46 million homeowners held a total of $7.3 trillion in equity.

If a homeowner has a mortgage on their home, while the home is appreciating, the unpaid balance is declining.  An increasing portion of each payment is applied, when the payment is made, to the principal balance to retire the debt based on the term of the loan.

Each month the equity in the home becomes larger because the home is worth more due to appreciation and the unpaid balance is less due to amortization.

Once a homeowner has sufficient equity in their home, they can borrow against it and take cash out of their home.  Most lenders require that the homeowner maintain at least 20% equity position.  This means that owners can borrow up to 80% of the appraised value less the amount that is currently owed on the property.

The options include a cash-out refinance mortgage or a home equity line of credit, HELOC.  While some institutions have stopped offering HELOCs, they are still available.

 The HELOC is a line of credit that is established for usually ten years.  The owner is approved, and the money is available to draw out as needed.  The interest is calculated daily.  Like a credit card, when the balance is paid down, the unused portion of the available credit is available again.

Your real estate agent may be able to offer some lender suggestions.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cash-Out Refinance

With the rapid appreciation that homes have had in the last two years, most homeowners have equity.   A common way to release part of the equity is to cash-out refinance but some homeowners may not be eligible currently. This type of loan replaces the current mortgage by paying it off and an additional amount of cash for the owner.   Generally, lenders will consider a new mortgage up to a total of 80% of the current value. Typically, the rate on a cash-out refinance will be slightly higher than a traditional purchase money mortgage.   As is in any lending situation, the rate depends on the borrower's credit and income.   The best interest rates are available to borrowers with higher credit scores, usually over 740. Loan-to-value can affect the rate a borrower pays also.   A 70% loan-to-value mortgage could be expected to have a lower interest rate than an 80% LTV because there is a larger amount of equity remaining in the property and therefore, less risk ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Make Your Home Offer the Most Appealing

Sales in February 2023 were up 14.5% month over month and still down 22.6% year over year according to the NAR Housing Snapshot.   The median sales price dipped 0.2% to $363,000 and there are 2.6 months supply of homes on the market compared to 1.7 months a year ago. "Inventory levels are still at historic lows, and consequently, multiple offers are returning on a good number of properties." According to Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of REALTORS�. It is still important to have a strategy for potentially competing with other buyers on the house you want to buy.   The plan should include several available provisions and options, so that at the time of drafting the sales offer, you can consider exactly what to include based on the situation. Unless a person is paying cash, you need to be pre-approved by a trusted mortgage professional long before you start looking at homes.   Include the written pre-approval letter along ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not Available for All Buyers

Lenders regularly publish mortgage rates but they may not be available for all buyers. Imagine that the mortgage payment based on an advertised rate influenced a buyer to make an offer on a home. After negotiating a binding contract, this buyer makes a loan application and finds out that for any number of possible reasons, that rate isn’t available. Even if the person does financially qualify for a loan at a higher interest rate, it will not be the payment that the buyer expected when the contract was negotiated. Lenders evaluate several factors such as the borrower’s credit score, debt-to-income and loan-to-value ratios. These variables are used to assess the risk associated with the repayment of the loan. While mortgage money is a commodity, it isn’t priced the same way items are that involve cash for goods. The lender puts up the money today based on a promise from the borrower to repay over a long term, possibly up to thirty years. The simple solution ...
Post a Comment
Read more