$\"Home$ \n

Are you on the fence about selling your house<\/a>? While affordability<\/a> is improving this year, it\u2019s still tight. And that may be on your mind. But understanding your home equity could be the key to making your decision easier. An article from Bankrate<\/em> explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>Home equity is the difference between your home\u2019s value and the amount you still owe on your mortgage.<\/em><\/strong> It represents the paid-off portion of your home.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You\u2019ll start off with a certain level of equity when you make your down payment to buy the home, then continue to build equity as you pay down your mortgage. You\u2019ll also build equity over time as your home\u2019s value increases.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Think of equity as a simple math equation. It\u2019s the value of your home now minus what you owe on your mortgage. And guess what? Recently, your equity has probably grown more than you think.<\/p>\n
In the past few years, home prices<\/a> skyrocketed, which means your home\u2019s value \u2013 and your equity \u2013 likely shot up, too. So, you may have more equity than you realize.<\/p>\n
How To Make the Most of Your Home Equity Right Now<\/strong><\/h4>\nIf you\u2019re thinking about moving, the equity you have in your home could be a big help. According<\/a> to CoreLogic<\/em>:<\/p>\n
\u201c. . . the average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage still <\/em>has more than $300,000 in equity<\/em><\/strong> . . .\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Clearly, homeowners have a lot of equity right now. And the latest data from the Census<\/em><\/a> and ATTOM<\/em><\/a> shows over two-thirds of homeowners have either completely paid off their mortgages (shown in<\/em> green in the chart below<\/em>) or have at least 50% equity (shown in<\/em> blue in the chart below<\/em>):<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n
That means roughly 70% have a tremendous amount of equity right now.<\/strong><\/p>\n
After you sell your house<\/a>, you can use your equity to help you buy<\/a> your next home. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n
\n
Be an all-cash buyer:<\/strong> If you\u2019ve been living in your current home for a long time, you might have enough equity to buy your next home without having to take out a loan. If that\u2019s the case, you won\u2019t need to borrow any money or worry about mortgage rates<\/a>. Investopedia<\/em> states<\/a>:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cYou may want to pay cash for your home if you\u2019re shopping in a competitive housing market, or<\/em> if you\u2019d like to save money on mortgage interest. It could help you close a deal and beat out other buyers.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n
Make a larger down payment:<\/strong> Your equity could also be used toward your next down payment. It might even be enough to let you put a larger amount down, so you won\u2019t have to borrow as much money. The Mortgage Reports<\/em> explains<\/a>:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201c<\/em>Borrowers who put down more money typically receive better interest rates from lenders.<\/em><\/strong> This is due to the fact that a larger down payment lowers the lender\u2019s risk because the borrower has more equity in the home from the beginning.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Easy Way To Find Out How Much Equity You Have<\/strong><\/h4>\n
To find out how much equity you have in your home, ask a real estate agent you trust for a Professional Equity Assessment Report (PEAR).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bottom Line<\/h3>\n
Planning a move<\/a>? Your home equity can really help you out. Connect with a local real estate agent to see how much equity you have and how it can help with your next home<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Are you on the fence about selling your house? While affordability is improving this year, it\u2019s still tight. And that may be on your mind. But understanding your home equity could be the key to making your decision easier. An article from Bankrate explains: \u201cHome equity is the difference between your home\u2019s value and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4571,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[29,27,20,18,28],"class_list":["post-4570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-insight","tag-idaho-real-estate","tag-north-idaho-homes","tag-rain-silverhawk","tag-real-estate","tag-sandpoint-idaho"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/20240208-Home-Equity-Can-be-a-Game-Changer-When-You-Sell.png?fit=750%2C410&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdz2Zu-1bI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandpointrealtyidaho.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}