HOME EQUITY RATES CONTINUE TO DECLINE IN FIRST QUARTER

Nationally, 43.3 percent of homes considered equity rich; Seriously underwater homes account for 3.2 percent of mortgaged properties

IRVINE, Calif., May 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM, the leading provider of property data, AI-powered analytics, and real estate intelligence solutions, today released its first quarter 2026 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 43.3 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the country were equity-rich, meaning the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market value.

That was down from 44.6 percent in the previous quarter and marked the lowest rate of equity-rich residential properties since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Nationwide, 3.2 percent of mortgaged residential properties were considered seriously underwater in the first quarter of 2026, meaning the combined estimated balances of loans secured by the properties were at least 25 percent more than the properties' estimated market value. That was up from 3 percent in the previous quarter and 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2025.

"Homeowner equity remains relatively strong overall, but we're seeing signs of moderation. As mortgage rates have risen and home prices have cooled, the share of equity-rich homes has declined in most markets while the rate of seriously underwater properties is edging up across much of the country." 

Share of equity-rich homes down in majority of states
The share of equity-rich homes rose in just three states compared to the fourth quarter of 2025 and in six states compared to the first quarter of 2025.

The states that saw year-over-year increases in their shares of equity-rich homes were Illinois (up from 31.5 percent to 33.5 percent), Alaska (up from 31.7 percent to 33.5 percent), South Dakota (up from 51.3 percent to 52.4 percent, North Dakota (up from 31.9 percent to 32.8 percent), New York (up from 54.1 percent to 54.4 percent), and Wisconsin (up from 49.3 percent to 49.5 percent).

The states with the larges year-over-year drops in their shares of equity-rich homes were Florida (down from 49.3 percent to 43.2 percent), Arizona (down from 49.8 percent  to 44.2 percent), Colorado (down from 45.8 percent  to 40.5 percent), North Carolina (down from 47.2 percent to 42.1 percent), and Texas (down from 47.4 percent to 42.5 percent).

The states with the highest shares of equity rich homes in the first quarter of 2026 were Vermont (85.7 percent), New Hampshire (58.1 percent), Montana (57.7 percent), Rhode Island (57.2 percent), and Hawaii (55.8 percent).

Seriously underwater rates up across most of the country
The share of seriously underwater mortgaged residential properties rose quarter-over-quarter in 44 states and the District of Columbia and rose year-over-year in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

The markets with the largest annual increases in their shares of seriously underwater properties were the District of Columbia (up from 3.8 percent to 5.3 percent), Mississippi (up from 6.6 percent to 8 percent), Louisiana (up from 10.5 percent to 11.8 percent), Kentucky (up from 7.3 percent to 8.5 percent), and Oklahoma (up from 5.5 percent to 6.6 percent).

The states that saw their share of seriously underwater properties shrink year-over-year were North Dakota (down from 4.8 percent to 4.3 percent), South Dakota (down from 3.4 percent to 3 percent), South Carolina (down from 3.8 percent to 3.6 percent), and Wyoming (down from 2.5 percent to 2.4 percent).

The states with the highest shares of seriously underwater properties were Louisiana (11.8 percent), Kentucky (8.5 percent), Mississippi (8 percent), Oklahoma (6.6 percent), and Arkansas (6.4 percent)

Large metro areas see widespread drops in equity-rich rates
The share of equity rich homes was down quarter-over-quarter in 87 percent (93) out of the 107 metropolitan statistical areas in ATTOM's analysis. Metro areas were included if they had populations of at least 500,000. Year-over-year, the share of equity-rich homes was down in 86 percent (92) of the markets.

The metro areas with the highest rates of equity rich homes in the first quarter of 2026 were San Jose, CA (65.2 percent); Los Angeles, CA (59.3 percent); San Diego, CA (58.2 percent), Portland, ME (57.9 percent), and Buffalo, NY (56.7 percent).

The metros with the lowest rates of equity rich homes were Baton Rouge, LA (17.4 percent); New Orleans, LA (19.1 percent); Little Rock, AR (23.7 percent), Jackson, MS (25.6 percent), and Baltimore, MD (26.9 percent).

The metros with the highest rates of seriously underwater homes in the first quarter of 2026 were Baton Rouge, LA (11.9 percent); Jackson, MS (10.4 percent); New Orleans, LA (10.2 percent); Little Rock, AR (7.1 percent); and Memphis, TN (7 percent).

Michigan counties boast highest equity-rich rates
Of the 30 counties with the highest share of equity rich properties in the first quarter, 23 were in Midwestern states, including eleven in Michigan, seven in Wisconsin, and four in Indiana.

The counties with the highest proportions of equity-rich homes were Benzie County, MI (94.5 percent); Manistee County, MI (92.3 percent); Marquette County, MI (91.2 percent); Portage County, WI (89.5 percent); and Chippewa County, MI (89.5 percent).

The counties with the lowest rates of equity-rich homes were Vernon Parish, LA (6.2 percent); Ascension Parish, LA (7.2 percent); Saint Bernard Parish, LA (7.2 percent); Iberville Parish, LA (8.7 percent); and Greenup County, Kentucky (10.6 percent).

Majority of homes were equity rich in more than a quarter of zip codes
At least half of the mortgaged properties were equity-rich in the first quarter of 2026 in 28.2 percent (2,564) of the 9,084 zip codes included in ATTOM's analysis.

The zip codes with the highest rates of equity-rich homes were 49855 in Marquette, MI (93.6 percent); 49783 in Sault Saint Marie, MI (91.3 percent); 57702 in Rapid City, SD (85.3 percent); 08243 in Sea Isle City, NJ (85 percent); and 54166 in Shawano, WI (84.9 percent).

Conclusion
The Q1 2026 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report finds that 43.3% of mortgaged homes were equity-rich while 3.2% were seriously underwater, as equity-rich rates declined and underwater rates increased across most U.S. markets amid rising mortgage rates and cooling home prices. Even with this moderation, national homeowner equity levels remain relatively healthy.

Report methodology
The ATTOM U.S. Home Equity & Underwater report provides counts of properties based on several categories of equity — or loan to value (LTV) — at the state, metro, county and zip code level, along with the percentage of total properties with a mortgage that each equity category represents. The equity/LTV is calculated based on record-level loan model estimating position and amount of loans secured by a property and a record-level automated valuation model (AVM) derived from publicly recorded mortgage and deed of trust data collected and licensed by ATTOM nationwide for more than 155 million U.S. properties. The ATTOM Home Equity and Underwater report has been updated and modified to better reflect a housing market focused on the traditional home buying process. ATTOM found that in markets where investors were more prominent, they would offset the loan to value ratio due to sales involving multiple properties with a single jumbo loan encompassing all of the properties. Therefore, going forward such activity is now excluded from the reports in order to provide traditional consumer home purchase and loan activity.

Definitions
Seriously underwater: Loan to value ratio of 125 percent or above, meaning the property owner owed at least 25 percent more than the estimated market value of the property.

Equity-rich: Loan to value ratio of 50 percent or lower, meaning the property owner had at least 50 percent equity.   

About ATTOM
ATTOM delivers AI-driven property intelligence built on one of the nation's most trusted property data assets, covering 158 million U.S. properties—99% of the population. Our engineered, multi-sourced real estate data spans property tax, deeds, mortgages, foreclosure, environmental risk, property conditions, natural hazards, neighborhood insights, and geospatial boundaries, rigorously validated for advanced analytics. ATTOM supports analytics and AI-driven applications through flexible delivery options including APIs, bulk licensing, cloud delivery, market trend products, and the MCP Server for AI-powered, agentic access to engineered property data—enabling organizations to automate analysis and scale property intelligence across industries.

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SOURCE ATTOM