American homeowners hold historically high equity levels, but the average conceals enormous regional variation — driven by price levels, how long owners have held, and how recently they bought.
High-price coastal states — California, Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts — post the largest dollar equity balances, because a modest percentage gain on an expensive home is a large number.
As a percentage of value, states with older housing stock and long tenure — much of the Midwest and Northeast — often lead, since owners have simply been paying down loans longer.
Fast-growing markets with heavy recent purchase activity show the lowest equity share, because those buyers financed at today's prices with today's down payments and have had little time to amortize.
State averages are context, not a benchmark. What matters is your equity relative to the 80% CLTV cap, because that determines what you can actually access.
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Purchase timing dominates. Two identical houses bought eight years apart can differ by hundreds of thousands in equity.
Part of The Homeowner's Guide to Home Equity.