ICE Mortgage Monitor: Home Equity Hits Record $17.5 Trillion in Q3, With 2.4 Million Equity Millionaires
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) released its November 2026 Mortgage Monitor report on November 9, finding that U.S. mortgage holders collectively held $17.5 trillion in home equity in the third quarter, up 1.4% year over year and a record high for a third quarter.
Tappable equity, the amount homeowners can access while maintaining a 20% equity cushion, rose 1.2% to an average of $204,000 per borrower, an increase of $16,600 from a year ago.
The number of equity millionaires also set a third-quarter record: 2.4 million mortgage holders held at least $1 million in equity, up 6% year over year, while nearly 9 million held $500,000 or more, up 4%. California accounted for 49% of the nation's equity millionaires, followed by New York (189,000), New Jersey (141,000) and Florida (104,000).
"Homeowners are sitting on substantial housing wealth, with 2.4 million mortgage holders now holding at least $1 million in equity," said Andy Walden, ICE's head of mortgage and housing market research. "In a higher rate environment, cash-outs are making up a greater share of refinances, with those homeowners giving up historically low mortgage rates and taking on higher monthly payments to tap into their equity."
With 30-year fixed rates above 7%, rate-and-term refinancing has nearly vanished and cash-out deals have taken over: cash-out transactions accounted for about one in seven rate locks in recent weeks, while purchase loans accounted for roughly 80% of rate locks. Adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for more than 10% of early-October rate locks, as the points-adjusted spread between 5/1 ARMs and 30-year fixed loans widened from roughly 75 basis points over the summer to more than 100 basis points in early October.
The cash-out wave is also making it harder for servicers to keep customers. Servicers retained 27% of refinancing borrowers in the third quarter, down four percentage points from the prior quarter. Retention among rate-and-term refinancers fell nine percentage points to 30%, while cash-out retention held at 26%, and servicers retained just 15% of cash-out borrowers whose loans dated to 2019 or earlier. Cash-out refinances accounted for 75% of all refinance-portfolio attrition.
Bob Hart, president of mortgage technology at ICE, said traditional rate-based retention strategies are not effective for borrowers motivated by access to equity rather than interest-rate savings, and that servicers need better visibility into borrowers' equity positions to engage them before they look elsewhere.
Source: Intercontinental Exchange
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 纽约证券交易所大楼。ICE为其母公司。（颐园居 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons）
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