Austin Is Equity Rich

A recent study found that Austin was the most equity rich real estate market in the county as of the end of October 2022. What exactly is equity rich? A homeowner is considered equity rich if the balance of the loan on their home is less than half the value of the home itself. Using that definition, 72% of the homes in the Austin metro area are equity rich. Obviously, a big part of this is because of the huge run up in prices we’ve seen over the past few years. Going back a year to 2021, 67% of homes were equity rich. So even with prices falling now, there is a lot of equity to cushion the decline. This bodes well for the market overall and is one reason that I believe we’ll see few foreclosures over the next year. Well, that and the fact that the same study found only 1.2% of area homes are seriously underwater with their mortgage.