Last year, we saw headlines about a possible housing market bubble, and many wondered if Americans still felt confident about the value of their homes. Recently, the 2018 Houzz & Home Study revealed:

“Homeowners with mortgages have seen their home equity more than double since 2011, increasing to a record-setting $8.3 trillion in 2017.”

The average homeowner gained $16,200 in home equity between Q2 2017 and Q2 2018 according to the latest release of CoreLogic’s Home Equity Report.

Since 2011 home values have increased significantly throughout the country, with prices rising by 5.1% in 2018 alone. When surveyed, homeowners revealed the top four reasons why they felt their homes had increased in value:

1.   Desirable Location
2.   Improved National Economy
3.   Improved Local Economy
4.   Low Home Inventory in My Area

As we can see, not only does the data show that the homes have appreciated, but homeowners also believe they know why. Many have taken advantage of the opportunity to use their newly found equity to sell their current house and move up to their dream home.

2019 will be a good year for homeowners that still want to take advantage of their home equity. CoreLogic forecasts that home prices will increase by 4.8% by the end of the year.

As for Denver, Realtor.com released its 2019 housing forecast, a day after Zillow announced its own predictions.

“On the whole, we expect home prices to continue rising — they’ll be up 2% (nationwide) next year,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com. “That’s lower than we’ve seen in last few years and that’s because we expect to see rising inventories.”

Realtor.com predicts the median home value in Denver will rise 6.8% in 2019, which is higher than Zillow’s forecast of 5%.

If you are a homeowner and would like to find out your current home value, let’s get together to discuss.  Call us today at 303-779-0591.