Despite low buyer demand, home prices remain steep throughout the U.S. Owing to this, many homeowners have seen the amount of equity they’ve built into their houses increase.

When a homeowner utilizes the LendingTree marketplace to shop around for a home equity loan lender, they select one of five reasons for why they’re seeking the money. By analyzing borrowers’ home equity loan requests in the first quarter of 2024, we determined why homeowners across the 50 states are thinking about tapping into their home equity. Here's what we found.

• Across the 50 states, 40.58% of those seeking a home equity loan cited paying for home improvements as their primary reason.
• 33.78% of homeowners considered tapping their home’s equity to help consolidate debt. This was the second most commonly cited reason among LendingTree users. However, in some states like Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota, it was the most commonly cited. 
• Using a home’s equity for investment purposes — other than home improvements — was the main goal for 7.68% of homeowners. Examples of investments include buying a property to rent or purchasing shares of a company via the stock market.
• Only 2.56% of homeowners considered using their home’s equity as retirement income. 

You can check out our full report here: https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/reasons-for-home-equity-study/

LendingTree's Senior Economist and report author, Jacob Channel, had this to say:

"While a home equity loan can be a good idea for some, getting one isn’t something to take lightly. As is virtually always the case when borrowing money, getting cash via a home equity loan isn’t without risk. In a worst-case scenario, defaulting on a home equity loan can result in a person losing their house. Owing to this, homeowners considering a home equity loan should tread carefully and be sure that they’re in a position to pay back whatever they borrow without serious financial strain."

The median down payment in the U.S. last quarter was $26,000, an average of 13.6% down, according to a new down payment trends report from Realtor.com, published this morning. 

The analysis of down payment trends at the national, state and top-100 metro levels found that while down payments fell from the all-time-high in Q3 2023, down payments climbed annually – up 3 percentage points and roughly $12,000 from Q1 2023 – as homeshoppers contended with higher mortgage rates and home prices and a restricted home supply.

Despite the drop from the historical peak, down payments remain well above pre-pandemic levels –  larger percent down on today’s typically higher priced homes means buyers paid 87.8% more as a down payment in Q1 2024 ($26,400) compared to Q1 2020 ($14,000). 

Here are the key takeaways: 

• In Q1 2024, down payments reached an average 13.6% down, or $26,000, the highest first quarter average on record. 
  • Down payments fell from their Q3 2023 peak of 14.7% or $30,400. 
  • Down payment grew annually 0.6 percentage points, or $2,300, from Q1 2023. 
• The typical down payment as a dollar amount increased in all but 8 states. 
• In Q1 2024, the top 7 metro areas where buyers made the largest down payments were all expensive California markets. These pricey metros tend to see large down payments as both interest rates and interest payments increase with larger loan amounts, incentivizing buyers to put down as much as possible to avoid these costs. Also, these high-priced locales tend to have wealthier, high-earning residents who have the funds to put more down on a home.
• Three of the five metros with the fast growing down payments, as a percentage of purchase price, were also in California and included Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif., Modesto, Calif, and Stockton, Calif along with New Haven-Milford, Conn. and Springfield, Mo.
• Measured in dollars, down payments for investment and second homes were three and four times larger than for primary homes, in Q1 2024.

According to Realtor.com Sr. Economic Research Analyst Hannah Jones: “Despite a slight decrease from their peak, current buyers are still shelling out higher down payments compared to pre-pandemic norms. This trend may stem from intense local competition from a lack of homes for sale, compelling some to increase down payments to win the home, while others aim to lower their monthly payments by putting more down and taking out a smaller loan.”

According to Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale: “The current housing market's overall unaffordability has an impact on who is buying homes right now. Given persistently high home prices and elevated mortgage rates, many of today’s purchasers are likely either high-earners or repeat buyers leveraging existing home equity to use as a down payment, and this may explain why down payments have dipped but remained relatively high.”

You can read the full report here. If you're interested, I would be happy to coordinate an interview.