Coasts Lead Household Wealth Gains; Lender Sentiment; Multifamily Drags Construction Down; Decent Week For Rates

Coasts Lead Household Wealth Gains; Lender Sentiment; Multifamily Drags Construction Down; Decent Week For Rates

While home prices continue to rise and homeowner equity to increase, CoreLogic reports that there are still 2.5 million mortgages in negative equity . The company's fourth quarter 2017 equity report states that homeowners increased their house-related wealth by an average of $15,000 from Q4 2016 through the end of 2017. The aggregate of these gains nationally was $908 billion, a year-over-year growth of 12.2 percent. Frank Martell, CoreLogic president and CEO said, "There are wide disparities in home-equity gains by geographic areas, with higher-priced, capacity constrained markets along the East and West Coasts registering the largest increases. The average homeowner in California and Washington had a wealth gain of about $40,000, reflecting the high price of homes in California and the rapid