Homeowners gained more than $1.5 trillion in equity in 2020!

Equity continued to mount in the fourth quarter of 2020, with mortgage-carrying American homeowners collectively gaining more than $1.5 trillion in equity year over year, according to CoreLogic.

That’s an average gain of $26,300 per homeowner since the fourth quarter of 2019, highest since the fourth quarter of 2013. Collectively, homeowners with mortgages (which accounts for some 62% of all properties in the country) logged an annual equity increase of 16.2%, driven by strong ongoing price gains fueled by soaring demand and minuscule inventory.

“Compared with a year earlier, home prices in December 2020 were up sharply — 9.2%, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index — boosting the amount of home equity for the average homeowner with a mortgage to more than $200,000,” said Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic’s chief economist. “This equity growth has enabled many families to finance home remodeling, such as adding an office or study, further contributing to last year’s record level in home improvement spending.”