Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index (FHFA HPI)

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price index for the fourth quarter of 2019, the home equity and home prices both increased from the previous quarter. The home equity index rose from 6.4% to 6.5%, while the home price index increased from 225.1 to 226.3.

The rise in home equity is due to an increase in home prices and a decrease in mortgage debt outstanding. The average U.S. household had $16,755 in equity in their homes as of December 31, 2019, up from $16,191 at the end of September 2019 and $15,625 at the end of December 2018 according to CoreLogic’s Home Equity Report released today.

Homeowners with a mortgage saw their equity increase by an average of $732 over the past three months and by $2,827 over the past twelve months to reach a new all-time high of $164,200 per household as of December 31st 2019 according to CoreLogic data analysis which includes loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.*

An estimated 43 million homeowners with a mortgage have positive equity representing 89 percent of all mortgaged properties – an increase from 84 percent one year ago.* Negative equity – when borrowers owe more on their mortgages than what their homes are worth – peaked at 26 percent during the second quarter of 2012.*

**As measured by CoreLogic’s Home Equity Report for Q4 2019**