Average Home Equity in 2026: What Homeowners Have
Average home equity for a mortgaged homeowner now sits at $310,000, according to Cotality’s Q2 2026 data. If you own a home, there’s a good chance it’s your biggest asset. It just doesn’t always feel that way day to day.
The mortgage payment is a bill. The equity underneath it is wealth, built up one payment and one year of appreciation at a time. Here’s what that number means, how it varies by income, and what your options are for putting it to work.
The national picture at a glance:
| Metric | National Figure | Source |
| Average Mortgaged Home Equity (Mean) | $310,000 | Cotality, Q2 2026 |
| Median Home Equity, All Homeowners | $201,000 | Federal Reserve SCF, 2022 |
| Total U.S. Mortgage Holder Equity | $17.9 trillion | Cotality, Q2 2026 |
| Total Homeowner Equity, All Owners | $34.9 trillion | Cotality, Q2 2026 |
| Tappable Equity (National Total) | $11.5 trillion | Cotality, Q2 2026 |
| Tappable Equity per Borrower | ~$212,000 | ICE Mortgage Technology, 2026 |
| Share of Homes Owned Free and Clear | 39.4% | U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 ACS |
Sources: Cotality (Q2 2026); Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (2022); ICE Mortgage Technology (2026); U.S. Census Bureau (2024 ACS)
What Is Home Equity?
Home equity is what you own in your house outright: its market value minus whatever you still owe on the mortgage.
Every mortgage payment chips away at what you owe, which builds equity even if your home’s value never moves. Add rising home prices on top of that, and equity can grow faster than most people expect.
Tappable equity means the amount you could borrow against while keeping at least 20% equity in your home, the cushion most lenders require. That’s why the tappable figures run well below total equity.
The Average Homeowner Has $310,000 in Equity
The average mortgaged homeowner held $310,000 in equity in the second quarter of 2026, according to Cotality. That’s the real estate data firm formerly known as CoreLogic. Total equity held by mortgage borrowers nationwide held at $17.9 trillion, with total housing wealth across every homeowner, mortgaged or not, reaching $34.9 trillion.
That $310,000 figure is a mean. A small number of high-equity homeowners pull the average upward, so the median tells a different story. The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the standard source for that comparison, put median home equity across all homeowners, with or without a mortgage, at $201,000 in its most recent wave. That survey ran in 2022, four years before this Cotality data, so today’s actual median is almost certainly higher.
Why so much of this wealth sits untouched
Cotality’s own framing for the current trend is direct: homeowners have accumulated enormous equity, and most of it isn’t doing much. Borrowers with the most housing wealth tend to have low mortgage rates and strong cash flow, so they have little reason to sell or borrow against what they’ve built.
Selling means giving up a low, locked-in rate for a new loan at today’s higher rate. That trade-off alone keeps a lot of equity sitting untouched. Only about 2.1% of mortgaged properties are underwater, a small share by historical standards.
About 65% of Americans own their home, according to the Census Bureau. For most of them, that home is where the bulk of their wealth sits, even more than retirement accounts or a brokerage balance. Equity moves with home prices and with how much of your mortgage you’ve paid down. That’s part of why the number shifts from year to year.
Where You Live Shapes Your Equity Gains
Equity doesn’t move the same way everywhere. Cotality’s second-quarter 2026 data shows the highest average equity balances concentrated in the West and Northeast, with the lowest in the Midwest and South.
| State | Average Equity per Borrower (Q2 2026) |
| Hawaii | $644,000 |
| California | $623,000 |
| Massachusetts | $486,000 |
| Iowa | $125,000 |
| Oklahoma | $124,000 |
| Louisiana | $109,000 |
The difference isn’t narrowing. In the first quarter of 2020, the spread between the highest- and lowest-equity states was about $395,000. By the second quarter of 2026, it had grown to $534,000. Price appreciation has increasingly rewarded states that already had high equity, so the equity gulf compounds instead of leveling out.
Some of the biggest movers show how uneven the growth has been. Connecticut and New Hampshire each climbed more than ten spots in the state rankings since 2020, adding $239,000 and $207,000 in equity respectively. Texas moved the other way, slipping from 24th to 35th place with a $58,000 gain, far behind the leaders.
If you live in a state near either end of these rankings, that doesn’t mean your plan is off track. Your home is moving at its own pace, separate from the national number. Keep that in mind before you decide to sell, refinance, or tap your equity.
Is Home Equity Part of Your Net Worth?
Home equity counts toward your net worth. Net worth adds up everything you own, including your home equity, then subtracts what you owe.
For many households, home equity makes up the largest single piece of net worth by retirement age. That’s worth sitting with for a second: the wealth tied up in your house is every bit as real as the wealth in a 401(k), even though it works in a different way.
The difference is liquidity. You can move money out of a brokerage account in a day. Getting cash out of your home takes more planning, whether that means selling, borrowing against it, or a reverse mortgage.
Home equity is just one part of your full financial picture. The average household savings and other balances breaks down where things stand across cash, retirement accounts, and equity together, if you want the fuller view.
The Income Gap in Home Value Is Smaller Than You’d Expect
Median home values differ across income groups, but the spread is narrower than in most other measures of wealth.
| Income Level | Median Home Value |
| Low income | $272,736 |
| Middle income | $356,318 |
| Upper income | $537,752 |
Source: Bankrate analysis of National Association of Realtors data, based on the 2024 American Community Survey
This reflects where each income group’s home values stand today, based on 2024 data rather than a decade of accumulated gains. The pattern still holds: real estate wealth stays less concentrated than most other measures of wealth.
Lower-income homeowners tend to stay in their homes longer, which helps narrow the difference over time. The same analysis found lower-income owners stay put the longest, an average of 19 years, while middle-income owners average 16 years and upper-income owners 14. More years in a home means more years of both mortgage paydown and appreciation.
Home Equity Isn’t as Concentrated as Stock Ownership
The wealthiest 1% hold more than half of all stock market wealth, but only about 14% of home equity.
According to the Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts, wealth concentration looks different depending on which asset you’re measuring.
| Wealth Group | Share of Stock Market Wealth | Share of Home Equity |
| Top 1% | 50%+ | ~14% |
| Bottom 50% | <1% | ~13% |
Put another way: if you’re not in the top 1%, your home is likely doing more for your net worth than your investment portfolio is.
What Home Equity Can and Can’t Do for You
Home equity is real wealth, but it doesn’t act like cash in your checking account.
It’s hard to access fast. Turning home equity into spendable money often means selling, borrowing, or setting up a reverse mortgage. None of those happen overnight.
Not all of it is usable. As covered earlier, tappable equity averages about $212,000 per borrower. The rest stays locked up until you sell.
It comes with upkeep. Property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and repairs are ongoing costs that a brokerage account doesn’t have.
It can lose value. Home prices move with the market, and while they’ve trended upward for decades, they can and do drop in some years and some places.
None of that makes home equity a bad place to hold wealth. It just means it behaves like a different kind of asset, and your plan should account for that.
How to Tap Home Equity in Retirement
You have several ways to turn home equity into usable money. Not all of them require selling or refinancing away the rate you’ve been protecting. A home equity loan sits behind your existing mortgage, so your original rate stays untouched. The Boldin Planner lets you model any of them as a “what if” scenario before you commit to one.
Why tap home equity
People tap their home equity for a range of reasons. Some want to fund a renovation that adds value back into the house. Others use it to consolidate higher-cost debt or cover a one-time expense like a wedding or a medical bill. Some retirees tap equity for income so they can spend more in retirement or retire a little earlier. Others hold the equity in reserve, ready to use if long-term care or a longer retirement makes it necessary. And some want to preserve it as an inheritance for the next generation.
How to tap home equity
Your main options include downsizing to a less expensive home, taking out a home equity loan, renting out part or all of your home, getting a reverse mortgage, or selling and renting going forward.
Run your own numbers in the Boldin Planner to see how each option plays out.
See How Your Equity Fits Into Your Plan
Your home equity is one piece of a bigger financial picture. The right move for you depends on the rest of that picture: your other savings, your income needs, and how many years you expect to be retired.
Someone weighing a downsize against a reverse mortgage is deciding how much flexibility to keep now versus later. That’s worth modeling before you commit to one path.
The Boldin Planner lets you enter your home value, mortgage balance, and the rest of your finances together. From there, you can test what downsizing, borrowing, or holding steady would do to your retirement picture.
Wherever your equity sits today, there’s a clear next step worth taking.
Frequently Asked Questions About Average Home Equity
Home equity counts toward your net worth. Net worth adds up everything you own, including your home equity, then subtracts what you owe. For most homeowners, it makes up a large share of total net worth by retirement age.
The average mortgaged homeowner has $310,000 in equity, according to Cotality’s Q2 2026 data. Most of that wealth sits untapped, since high-equity homeowners tend to have low mortgage rates and little reason to sell or borrow. The figure shifts further by income level and location.
Home value is what your house would likely sell for today. Equity is what you own outright: your home’s value minus what you still owe on the mortgage. Equity grows as you pay down your loan or your home appreciates.
Home equity tends to be less liquid than a 401(k) or brokerage account, since turning it into cash takes time and planning. It’s also less concentrated at the top than most other kinds of wealth.
Downsizing can free up real money, but timing and planning matter. Check current market conditions before you decide, and don’t assume a smaller home means smaller costs, since costs can climb fast if you’re moving somewhere more expensive.
Relocating helps most if your current home has appreciated and you’re headed somewhere cheaper to live. Weigh the tradeoffs too, including distance from family, healthcare access, and climate, before making the move.
The post Average Home Equity in 2026: What Homeowners Have appeared first on Boldin.
