The national share of equity-rich homes fell to 41.1 percent in the second quarter; Rate of seriously underwater homes held steady at 3.2 percent
IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM, the leading provider of property data, AI-powered intelligence, and real estate analytics solutions, today released its second quarter 2026 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 41.1 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 43.3 percent in the first quarter of the year and from 47.4 percent in the second quarter of 2025. After four straight quarters of decline, the national share of equity-rich homes is at its lowest point in nearly five years.
Meanwhile, 3.2 percent of properties in the second quarter of 2026 were considered seriously underwater, 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 the same rate as the previous quarter, but up from 2.7 percent at the same time last year.
"These two measures of home equity strength, the rates of equity-rich and seriously underwater homes, remain healthier than they were prior to 2020," said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. "However, both have been moving in less favorable directions over the past year, suggesting a trend worth watching."
Four states saw rates of equity-rich homes rise
The share of equity-rich homes rose in 13 states quarter-over-quarter but just four states year-over year.
The states that experienced year-over-year increases in their shares of equity-rich homes were North Dakota (up from 30.2 percent to 32.9 percent equity-rich); South Dakota (up from 52.1 percent to 53.6 percent); Kentucky (up from 35.1 percent to 36.5 percent); and Wyoming (up from 45.3 percent to 46.6 percent).
The states with the largest annual drops in their shares of equity-rich homes were Minnesota (down from 37.6 percent to 20.1 percent equity-rich); Michigan (down from 50.8 percent to 39.3 percent); California (down from 56.9 percent to 45.6 percent); Washington (down from 52.4 percent to 43.2 percent); and Missouri (down from 46.1 percent to 37.8 percent).
In the second quarter of 2026, the states with the highest proportions of equity-rich homes were Vermont (78.9 percent); Montana (59 percent); Rhode Island (54.9 percent); South Dakota (53.6 percent); and New Hampshire (53.1 percent).
Seriously underwater rate shoots up in Minnesota
The proportion of seriously underwater homes rose in 18 states quarter-over-quarter and in 33 states and the District of Columbia year-over-year.
The states with the largest annual increases in their rates of seriously underwater homes were Minnesota (up from 2.6 percent to 12.1 percent of homes seriously underwater); South Dakota (up from 3.1 percent to 5.7 percent); Iowa (up from 5.9 percent to 7.8 percent); Michigan (up from 2.5 percent to 4 percent); and the District of Columbia (up from 3.7 percent to 5 percent).
The states with the biggest year-over-year drops in their rates of seriously underwater homes were Louisiana (down from 11.9 percent to 10.3 percent); Kentucky (down from 7 percent to 5.7 percent); North Dakota (down from 5 percent to 4 percent); Oklahoma (down from 5.6 percent to 4.7 percent); and New York (down from 2 percent to 1.5 percent).
In the second quarter of 2026, the states with the highest rates of seriously underwater homes were Minnesota (12.1 percent); Louisiana (10.3 percent); Iowa (7.8 percent); Mississippi (6.4 percent); and Arkansas (6 percent).
Nearly all big metros lost share of equity-rich homes year-over-year
The share of equity-rich homes was down quarter-over-quarter in 67.6 percent (73) of the 108 metropolitan statistical areas in ATTOM's analysis, which included metros if they had populations of at least 500,000 and sufficient data to analyze. Year-over-year, the share of equity-rich homes was down in 96.3 percent (104) of those metro areas.
The metro areas with the highest rates of equity-rich homes in the second quarter of 2026 were San Jose, CA (59.1 percent); Portland, ME (56.4 percent); New York, NY (54.7 percent); Buffalo, NU (54.4 percent); and Providence, RI (53.1 percent).
The metros with the lowest rates of equity-rich homes for the quarter were Baton Rouge, LA (15.4 percent); Minneapolis, MN (16.9 percent); Fresno, CA (18.1 percent); New Orleans, LA (19.9 percent); and Richmond, VA (22.1 percent).
On the other end of the spectrum, the metros with the highest rates of seriously underwater homes were Minneapolis, MN (13.4 percent); Fresno, CA (10.9 percent); Baton Rouge, LA (10.9 percent); New Orleans, LA (8.5 percent); and Richmond, VA (6.7 percent).
Wide disparities in equity-rich rates between counties
Among counties with sufficient data to analyze, those with the highest shares of equity-rich homes in the second quarter of 2026 were Park County, MT (94.7 percent); Codington County, SD (92.2 percent); Lawrence County, SD (89 percent); Marquette County, MI (86.4 percent); and Chittenden County, VT (86.3 percent).
The counties with the smallest shares of equity-rich homes were Saint Bernard Parish, LA (10.8 percent); Sherburne County, MN (12.6 percent); Iberville Parish, LA (12.7 percent); Bossier Parish, LA (12.8 percent); and Long County, GA (13.3 percent).
Shrinking share of zip codes have at least 50 percent equity-rich homes
In the second quarter of 2026, at least half of all mortgaged homes were equity-rich in 21 percent (1,861) of the 8,865 zip codes with sufficient data to analyze.
The zip codes with the highest rates of equity-rich properties were 59047 in Livingston, MT (94.8 percent); 57201 in Watertown, SD (92.3 percent); 57783 in Spearfish, SD (90.4 percent); 57702 in Rapid City, SD (88.8 percent); and 49855 in Marquette, MI (87.9 percent).
Conclusion
The Q2 2026 U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report found that the nation's share of equity-rich homes continued to shrink to 41.1 percent, near a five-year low. The nationwide rate of seriously underwater homes stayed level quarter-over-quarter, but has risen consistently over the last year.
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 160+ 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 160+ 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, and the MCP Server for AI-powered, agentic access to engineered property data—enabling organizations to automate analysis and scale property intelligence across industries.
Media Contact:
Megan Hunt
[email protected]
Data and Report Licensing:
[email protected]
SOURCE ATTOM
Share this article