Palm Beach County Leads South Florida for Home Equity
Bottom Line: Property in the Palm Beaches is anything but cheap. The great news is that the overwhelming majority of homeowners in the Palm Beaches are well positioned to benefit from it, should they choose to, as we have the highest percentage of homeowners who are “equity rich”. The term equity rich is defined by ATTOM Data as owning at least 50% of a property's equity. As a state, Florida ranks 2nd in the country for the percentage of homeowners who are equity rich. And as good as that news is – it's even better closest to home.
Palm Beach County leads Southeast Florida for having the highest percentage of equity rich homeowners, 68.3%. That compares with the state of Florida at 61% and the United States overall at 47%. In fact, among populous counties, with at least 500,000 in population, Palm Beach County ranks 5th for equity rich homeowners. That’s all great news. Especially when you factor in how many residents of Palm Beach County are already mortgage free.
Approximately 43% of locals are already mortgage free. When you put all of these real-estate related facts together, a total of 82% of Palm Beach County’s property owners control at least half of the value of their property. That’s by far the best showing I’ve ever seen in our area, and it also carries another ambient benefit. Stability. Given what many suffered through in our area during the Great Recession’s housing crisis, it’s understandable many are still skeptical of the housing boom we’ve experienced yet again. However, there are no similarities between the one built on unsustainable debt a couple of decades ago, and the one built on controllable home equity this time around.