The Surprising Amount of Home Equity You've Gained over the Years

How Long You've Been in Your Home

First up is homeowner tenure. That's how long homeowners live in a house, on average, beforesellingor choosing to move. From 1985 to 2009, the average length of time homeowners stayed put was roughly six years.

Butaccordingto theNational Association of Realtors(NAR), that number has been climbing.Now, the average tenure is 10 years (see graph below):

Here's why that's such a big deal. You gainequityas you pay down your home loan and as home prices climb. And when you combine all of your mortgage payments with how muchpriceshave gone up over the span of 10 years, that adds up. So, if you've lived in your house for a while now, you may be sitting on a pile of equity.

How Home Prices Appreciate over Time

To help show how much the price appreciation piece adds up, take a look at thisdatafrom theFederal Housing Finance Agency(FHFA) (see graph below):

Here's what this means for you. Whilehome pricesvary by area, the typical homeowner who's been in their house for five years saw it increase in value by nearly 60%. And the average homeowner who's owned their home for 30 years saw it more than triple in value in that time.

Whether you're looking todownsize, relocate to adream destination, or move so you can live closer to friends or loved ones, yourequitycan be a game changer.

If you want to find out how much equity you've built up over the years and how you can use it to buy your next home, let's connect.