Housing's Haves, Have-Nots

U.S. household equity is steadily approaching $16 trillion, while mortgage debt is currently more than $10 trillion. Tight lending, the proliferation of cash buyers, and more owners staying in their homes longer are cited as major contributors.  

While many potential homebuyers are being kept out of the market, and homeowners are increasingly benefitting from growing home equity, Andrea Riquier writes for MarketWatch that this reflects the stark divide between haves and have nots, as does the debate between YIMBY and NIMBY factions. Exclusionary zoning measures, limiting housing types, characteristics, and the number of new homes allowed to be built, make it harder for homebuyers to enter, and when considered along with current household debt and equity data, "show the market settling into a similar pattern: the haves have more, and the have-nots have trouble getting a foothold."

More than a decade after the housing crisis, homeowners have been made whole — and then some. But the amount of mortgage debt that Americans owe still hasn’t returned to its previous, pre-crisis high. Those two numbers together say a lot — not all of it happy — about the state of our national housing market. There are lots of reasons why home equity is up. Home prices have spent the past several years roaring higher, even if that pace of growth has recently started to moderate.

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