Cotality\u2019s third-quarter report on homeowner equity<\/a>, focusing on homes with mortgages and comparing home values with loan balances. Cotality tracked this measure of financial cushion for borrowers in 49 states (Vermont didn\u2019t have enough data) and the District of Columbia.<\/p>\nMortgaged homes across California lost an average $33,000 in equity in the year ended in September. That\u2019s more than double the national decline of $13,000. Equity declined in 33 states as home values fell in many areas over the past year.<\/p>\n
Florida had the biggest drop with average equity down $37,000. Next was the District of Columbia, off $36,000. After California, Washington state was off $32,000. Texas had the eighth-biggest dip, down $26,000.<\/p>\n
The biggest gainers show the Northeast as the nation\u2019s hottest housing market of late.<\/p>\n
Connecticut\u2019s average equity rose by $32,000 over the year; New Jersey was up $28,000; Massachusetts and Rhode Island were up $16,000; and Maine was up $14,000.<\/p>\n
Slice of a big pie<\/p>\n
Years of Golden State home-price gains dull the pain of the recent downswing.<\/p>\n
Californians still have plenty of equity left, despite the 2025 slip: an average $603,000 per mortgaged home.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s slightly more than double the nation\u2019s average equity stake of $299,000.<\/p>\n
Only Hawaiians have more equity at $674,000. After California, Massachusetts came in at $476,000, Washington state at $431,000, and New Jersey at $408,000. Texas was No. 36 at $188,000, and Florida was No. 18 at $279,000.<\/p>\n
The smallest equity was in\u00a0Louisiana at $102,000, Oklahoma at $115,000, and Iowa at $121,000.<\/p>\n
Taking all that remaining equity into account, the California decline looks modest on a percentage-point basis. It\u2019s just a 5% drop, ranking 16th-worst among the states and slightly larger than the national 4% decline.<\/p>\n
The biggest percentage tumbles were in Texas, Florida and Louisiana \u2013 each off 12% in a year, the District of Columbia, off 10%, and Arizona, off 9%.<\/p>\n
Top gains, by percentage? Connecticut at 10%, then New Jersey at 7%, Maine at 4%, Rhode Island at 4%, and Massachusetts at 3%.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s underwater?<\/p>\n
One measure of potential mortgage problems is the number of borrowers who have no equity in their homes, which limits the staying power of \u201cunderwater\u201d owners in the event of financial troubles.<\/p>\n
Just 0.9% of California borrowers had no equity in the third quarter, by Cotality\u2019s count. That tied Nevada for the nation\u2019s best. Next were Massachusetts and Rhode Island at 1.1% and Hawaii at 1.2%.<\/p>\n
Nationwide, 2.2% of mortgages were underwater. They were most common in Louisiana (6.9% of all homes), Iowa (5.2%), Mississippi and Oklahoma (4.9%), and South Dakota (4.7%). Texas was No. 30 at 2.4% and Florida was No. 18 at 1.9%.<\/p>\n
For a little historical context, 37% of California mortgages were underwater in 2009\u2019s fourth quarter as the Great Recession was demolishing the housing market. At the same time, 26% of homes nationwide had no equity.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remember that a home loan\u2019s financial leverage can boost ownership profits over the mortgage\u2019s life but also magnify…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":482690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,64,1582,276,32555,50,4329,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-482689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-mortgages","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-real-estate","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115814974424048944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}