Map Shows Where Homeowners Have Accumulated Highest Equity
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
American homeowners are sitting on tens of trillions of home equity after years of meteoric price appreciation—a small treasure which would now allow them to take out a much bigger second mortgage, according to a new study.
U.S. households had $34.5 trillion in home equity as of the first quarter of the year, according to the latest LendingTree data—$600 billion more than they did a year earlier and $4.7 trillion more than in the first quarter of 2023. That is close to an all-time high for the nation, which analysts suggest is mainly due to the run-up in prices during the pandemic homebuying frenzy, when stronger demand clashed with limited inventory.
Homeowners can tap into this equity to improve their home or consolidate their existing debt; but high borrowing costs make it hard, at the moment, to access this new pool of housing wealth. The longer they wait, however, the more they pay off of their current mortgage.
This, in turn, means that they are likely to get even higher home equity loan (HEL) offers, LendingTree suggests: American homeowners were offered an average of $144,330 in early 2025, up 38.6 percent from the average of $104,102 in early 2023.
What Are Home Equity Loan Offers?
A HEL offer is the amount of money a homeowner can borrow using the equity in their current home as a collateral—what is also known as a second mortgage. The loan amount is based on the difference between the home's current market value and how much the homeowner still has to pay off their previous mortgage.
"Home equity gives you options, which is so important when you're trying to knock down debt in a time of high interest rates," Matt Schulz, LendingTree's Chief Consumer Finance Analyst, said in a press release.
According to Schulz, the extra money that comes with a higher HEL offer can be used for "substantial home renovation, consolidating other debts, paying educational expenses or even starting a small business."
While home equity loans "shouldn't be entered into lightly because using your home as collateral is serious business," Schulz said, "they're absolutely worth considering for those who are struggling with high-interest debts."
Where Can Homeowners Get The Highest HEL Offers In The Country?
Homeowners in Hawaii, California, and Utah currently stand to receive the highest HEL offers in the nation, according to LendingTree. That is perhaps unsurprising, as these are also some of the most expensive housing markets in the nation, where the median sale price of a home is much higher than the national average.
In June, the median sale price of a home was $759,700 in Hawaii, $866,900 in California, and $557,900 in Utah, according to Redfin data. In the same month, the typical U.S. home went for $446,766.
Home equity loan offers in Hawaii are currently at an average of $493,143, according to LendingTree estimates. In California, HEL offers are an average of $326,923, and in Utah $323,702.
In these three states, offer amounts jumped by 323 percent, 258.2 percent and 227.7 percent, respectively, between 2023 and 2025.
At the other end of the scale, West Virginia had the lowest home equity loan offers at an average of $64,916, followed by Iowa ($72,817) and Arkansas ($81,645), according to LendingTree's data.
A map showing the states with the highest and lowest home equity loan (HEL) offers, according to a new LendingTree study.
A map showing the states with the highest and lowest home equity loan (HEL) offers, according to a new LendingTree study.
LendingTree
Methodology explained
These figures are based on analysis of some 700,000 home equity loans offered to users of the LendingTree platform across the nation's 50 states from Jan. 1 to May 31, 2025. The study calculated the average loan amount offered, the average interest rate and the average monthly payment.
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