Tammie N Brown - NMLS 1372609

A housing report showed existing-home sales at a 3-decade low, while median new and existing home prices topped $400K, with existing homes nearing 5x income.
By Late-Q4 2025, the median-priced home cost ~$3.1K monthly and needed >$120K income to afford, versus ~$1.7K and ~$66K in Early-Q1 2020.
Starting in Late-Q1 2020, the central bank bought trillions in MBS, lifting holdings ↑93% in ~2 yr to $2.7T by Mid-Q2 2022.
Those purchases lowered mortgage spreads and borrowing costs, expanded buying power, and pushed demand against limited supply, helping owners gain equity while entry costs climbed.
Later tightening left many owners locked into earlier low-rate mortgages, while outsiders faced higher prices and financing costs, changing who could enter the market.

Fed Policy Raised Homeownership Costs

A mortgage monitor estimated US mortgage holders held a record $18T in home equity in Q2 2026, including $11.7T in tappable equity across 47.5M borrowers.
The data also showed ~813K borrowers owed more than their homes were worth, a yearly ↑~44%, showing record wealth can coexist with pockets of strain.
Nationwide, ~41% of mortgaged residential properties were equity-rich, meaning total loans were no more than half the home's estimated market value in Q2.
Even with record total equity, the equity-rich share fell from ~47% to ~41% yearly after four straight quarterly declines, nearing a five-yr low.
Home equity can create options, but borrowing adds debt, another payment, and collateral risk; many owners may simply keep that cushion as long-term wealth.