Home Equity Slips below 50% (EC Math blog #1)

For the first time on record since 1945 Americans' percentage of their equity in their homes has dropped below 50%. The percentage of home equity percentage was 49.6% in the second quarter of 2007. In the fourth quarter it fell to 47.9%. Even though house prices jumped earlier this decade because of a surge in cash-out refinances, home equity loans and lines of credit and an increase in 100% or more home financing home equity has steadily decreased. Economists assume that home equity will drop even further as declining home prices eat into the value of most Americans' single largest asset.