Nationwide Share of Homes Considered Equity Rich Ticks Up To 47.4 Percent; Homeowners in New England Hold Strong Equity Advantage
ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, today released its second quarter 2025 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 47.4 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the country were equity-rich, meaning the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market value.
That was up from 46.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, reversing a recent trend where the share of equity-rich homes had declined for three straight quarters after peaking at 49.2 percent in the second quarter of 2024.
Meanwhile, 2.7 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the U.S. were seriously underwater in the second quarter of the year, meaning the combined estimated balance of loans secured by the properties were at least 25 percent more than the properties’ estimated market values. That was down slightly from 2.8 percent the previous quarter but still higher than the 2.4 percent share posted in the second quarter of 2024.
“With home prices at record highs you’d expect to see owners enjoying more equity in their homes so it’s good to see equity-rich rates rebound after a few slower quarters,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM.
“Unfortunately, the increase in equity-rich rates we saw in the second quarter hasn’t been spread evenly throughout the country,” he added. “In some states, particularly Louisiana, too many homeowners are still struggling with loan balances that are more than their homes are worth.”
Share of equity-rich homes rose quarterly in nearly three quarters of states
Quarter-over-quarter, the share of equity-rich homes rose in 37 states and the District of Columbia but only 19 states had higher equity rich rates in the second quarter of 2025 than they did at the same time last year.
The states with the largest annual increases in the proportion of equity-rich homes were Connecticut (up from 45.5 percent to 49.4 percent), New Jersey (up from 50 percent to 53.6 percent), Alaska (up from 31 percent to 33.7 percent), West Virginia (up from 33.6 to 36.4 percent), and Wyoming (up from 43.5 to 45.3 percent).
Meanwhile, the largest annual drops in the proportion of equity-rich homes were in Florida (down from 56 percent to 48.5 percent), Arizona (down from 53.9 percent to 48.6 percent), Georgia (down from 47.9 percent to 43.3 percent), Colorado (down from 50.7 percent to 46.5 percent), and Washington (down from 56.5 percent to 52.4 percent).
Most states see quarterly drop in seriously underwater homes
The share of seriously underwater homes dropped quarter-over-quarter in 31 states and the District of Columbia but only eight states had a lower proportion of seriously underwater homes in the second quarter of 2025 than they did in the second quarter of 2024.
The states with the largest year-over-year drop in seriously underwater homes were West Virginia (down from 4.7 percent to 4.3 percent), Mississippi (down from 6.8 percent to 6.5 percent), Connecticut (down from 1.5 percent to 1.4 percent), North Dakota (down from 5.02 to 4.97 percent), and New Jersey (down from 1.71 to 1.66 percent).
The markets with the largest year-over-year increases in seriously underwater homes were Kansas (up from 2.9 percent to 4.4 percent), Louisiana (up from 10.5 percent to 11.9 percent), the District of Columbia (up from 2.8 percent to 3.7 percent), Georgia (up from 2.4 percent to 3.2 percent), and Iowa (up from 5.2 percent to 5.9 percent).
New England boasts highest proportion of equity-rich homes
The states with the highest proportions of equity-rich homes in the second quarter of 2025 were Vermont (84.9 percent), New Hampshire (60.3 percent), Rhode Island (60.3 percent), Montana (59.2 percent), and Hawaii (59.2 percent).
The markets with the lowest proportion of equity rich homes were Louisiana (18 percent), North Dakota (30.2 percent), the District of Columbia (32.7 percent), Iowa (33 percent), and Alaska (33.7 percent).
Out of the 110 metropolitan statistical areas in our analysis with populations over 500,000, the markets with the highest share of equity-rich homes were San Jose, CA (68.4 percent); Los Angeles, CA (63.4 percent); San Diego, CA (62.5 percent); Buffalo, NY (61.5 percent); and Portland, ME (60.6 percent).
The metro areas with the smallest share of equity-rich homes were Baton Rouge, LA (16.2 percent); New Orleans, LA (22.4 percent); Des Moines, IA (29.3 percent); Virginia Beach, VA (30.3 percent); and Little Rock, AR (30.5 percent).
Michigan has many of the nation’s most equity-rich counties
The state of Michigan was home to 10 of the 25 counties with the highest share of equity-rich homes in the nation. ATTOM’s analysis included counties with at least 2,500 homes with a mortgage in the second quarter.
The leading counties were Chittenden County, VT (90.7 percent); Marquette, MI (90.1 percent); Portage County, WI (89.8 percent); Chippewa County, MI (89.7 percent); Manistee County, MI (89.3 percent).
By contrast, Louisiana had 19 of the 25 counties with the worst equity-rich rates in the nation. The counties with the smallest share of equity-rich homes were Vernon Parish, LA (5.9 percent); Iberville Parish, LA (8.4 percent); Ascension Parish, LA (8.7 percent); Acadia Parish, LA (9.3 percent); and Long County, GA (10.2 percent).
Rise in zip codes where majority of homes are equity-rich
In 41.7 percent (3,816) of the 9,149 zip codes with sufficient data to analyze, at least half of all residential properties with a mortgage were considered equity rich. That was up from 37 percent last quarter.
California once again led the way with 14 of the 25 zip codes with the highest equity-rich rates in the nation. The top zip codes were 49855 in Marquette, MI (92 percent); 49783 in Sault Sainte Marie, MI (92 percent); 93110 in Santa Barbara, CA (85 percent); 94024 in Los Altos, CA (85 percent); and 57702 in Rapid City, SD (85 percent).
Louisiana has highest share of seriously underwater homes
The states with the smallest proportions of seriously underwater homes were Vermont (0.7 percent), Rhode Island (0.9 percent), New Hampshire (1.1 percent), Massachusetts (1.1 percent). and Hawaii (1.3 percent).
Those with the highest share of seriously underwater homes were Louisiana (11.9 percent), Kentucky (7 percent). Mississippi (6.5 percent), Iowa (5.9 percent), and Oklahoma (5.6 percent).
Out of the 110 large metro areas with sufficient data to analyze, the lowest rates of seriously underwater homes were in San Jose, CA (0.6 percent); San Diego, CA (1 percent); Boston, MA (1 percent); Providence, RI (1 percent); and Worcester, MA (1.1 percent).
The metro areas with the highest rates of seriously underwater homes were Baton Rouge, LA (11.6 percent); New Orleans, LA (9 percent); Jackson, MS (6.1 percent); Lexington, KY (5.2 percent); and Little Rock, AR (5.2 percent).
More than a tenth of all homes were seriously underwater in just 2.4 percent (217) of the 9,149 zip codes with sufficient data to analyze.
The zip codes with the highest proportions of seriously underwater homes were 11937 in East Hampton, NY (41 percent); 19132 in Philadelphia, PA (30 percent); 44112 in Cleveland, OH (29 percent); 41501 in Pikeville, KY (28 percent); and 70601 in Lake Charles, LA (28 percent).
Report methodology
The ATTOM U.S. Home Equity & Underwater report provides counts of properties based on several categories of equity — or loan to value (LTV) — at the state, metro, county and zip code level, along with the percentage of total properties with a mortgage that each equity category represents. The equity/LTV is calculated based on record-level loan model estimating position and amount of loans secured by a property and a record-level automated valuation model (AVM) derived from publicly recorded mortgage and deed of trust data collected and licensed by ATTOM nationwide for more than 155 million U.S. properties. The ATTOM Home Equity and Underwater report has been updated and modified to better reflect a housing market focused on the traditional home buying process. ATTOM found that in markets where investors were more prominent, they would offset the loan to value ratio due to sales involving multiple properties with a single jumbo loan encompassing all of the properties. Therefore, going forward such activity is now excluded from the reports in order to provide traditional consumer home purchase and loan activity.
Definitions
Seriously underwater: Loan to value ratio of 125 percent or above, meaning the property owner owed at least 25 percent more than the estimated market value of the property.
Equity-rich: Loan to value ratio of 50 percent or lower, meaning the property owner had at least 50 percent equity.
