OscarNet

Friday, August 21, 2026

Share of Equity-Rich Homes Near Five-Year Low

The national share of equity-rich homes fell to 41.1 percent in the second quarter; Rate of seriously underwater homes held steady at 3.2 percent

ATTOM, the leading provider of property data, AI-powered intelligence, and real estate analytics solutions, today released its second quarter 2026 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 41.1 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the country were equity-rich, meaning the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market value.

That was down from 43.3 percent in the first quarter of the year and from 47.4 percent in the second quarter of 2025. After four straight quarters of decline, the national share of equity-rich homes is at its lowest point in nearly five years.

Meanwhile, 3.2 percent of properties in the second quarter of 2026 were considered seriously underwater, meaning the combined estimated balances of loans secured by the properties were at least 25 percent more than the properties’ estimated market value. That was the same rate as the previous quarter, but up from 2.7 percent at the same time last year.

“These two measures of home equity strength, the rates of equity-rich and seriously underwater homes, remain healthier than they were prior to 2020,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “However, both have been moving in less favorable directions over the past year, suggesting a trend worth watching.”

Four states saw rates of equity-rich homes rise

The share of equity-rich homes rose in 13 states quarter-over-quarter but just four states year-over year.

The states that experienced year-over-year increases in their shares of equity-rich homes were North Dakota (up from 30.2 percent to 32.9 percent equity-rich); South Dakota (up from 52.1 percent to 53.6 percent); Kentucky (up from 35.1 percent to 36.5 percent); and Wyoming (up from 45.3 percent to 46.6 percent).

The states with the largest annual drops in their shares of equity-rich homes were Minnesota (down from 37.6 percent to 20.1 percent equity-rich); Michigan (down from 50.8 percent to 39.3 percent); California (down from 56.9 percent to 45.6 percent); Washington (down from 52.4 percent to 43.2 percent); and Missouri (down from 46.1 percent to 37.8 percent).

In the second quarter of 2026, the states with the highest proportions of equity-rich homes were Vermont (78.9 percent); Montana (59 percent); Rhode Island (54.9 percent); South Dakota (53.6 percent); and New Hampshire (53.1 percent).

Seriously underwater rate shoots up in Minnesota

The proportion of seriously underwater homes rose in 18 states quarter-over-quarter and in 33 states and the District of Columbia year-over-year.

The states with the largest annual increases in their rates of seriously underwater homes were Minnesota (up from 2.6 percent to 12.1 percent of homes seriously underwater); South Dakota (up from 3.1 percent to 5.7 percent); Iowa (up from 5.9 percent to 7.8 percent); Michigan (up from 2.5 percent to 4 percent); and the District of Columbia (up from 3.7 percent to 5 percent).

The states with the biggest year-over-year drops in their rates of seriously underwater homes were Louisiana (down from 11.9 percent to 10.3 percent); Kentucky (down from 7 percent to 5.7 percent); North Dakota (down from 5 percent to 4 percent); Oklahoma (down from 5.6 percent to 4.7 percent); and New York (down from 2 percent to 1.5 percent).

In the second quarter of 2026, the states with the highest rates of seriously underwater homes were Minnesota (12.1 percent); Louisiana (10.3 percent); Iowa (7.8 percent); Mississippi (6.4 percent); and Arkansas (6 percent).

Nearly all big metros lost share of equity-rich homes year-over-year

The share of equity-rich homes was down quarter-over-quarter in 67.6 percent (73) of the 108 metropolitan statistical areas in ATTOM’s analysis, which included metros if they had populations of at least 500,000 and sufficient data to analyze. Year-over-year, the share of equity-rich homes was down in 96.3 percent (104) of those metro areas.

The metro areas with the highest rates of equity-rich homes in the second quarter of 2026 were San Jose, CA (59.1 percent); Portland, ME (56.4 percent); New York, NY (54.7 percent); Buffalo, NU (54.4 percent); and Providence, RI (53.1 percent).

The metros with the lowest rates of equity-rich homes for the quarter were Baton Rouge, LA (15.4 percent); Minneapolis, MN (16.9 percent); Fresno, CA (18.1 percent); New Orleans, LA (19.9 percent); and Richmond, VA (22.1 percent).

On the other end of the spectrum, the metros with the highest rates of seriously underwater homes were Minneapolis, MN (13.4 percent); Fresno, CA (10.9 percent); Baton Rouge, LA (10.9 percent); New Orleans, LA (8.5 percent); and Richmond, VA (6.7 percent).

Wide disparities in equity-rich rates between counties

Among counties with sufficient data to analyze, those with the highest shares of equity-rich homes in the second quarter of 2026 were Park County, MT (94.7 percent); Codington County, SD (92.2 percent); Lawrence County, SD (89 percent); Marquette County, MI (86.4 percent); and Chittenden County, VT (86.3 percent).

The counties with the smallest shares of equity-rich homes were Saint Bernard Parish, LA (10.8 percent); Sherburne County, MN (12.6 percent); Iberville Parish, LA (12.7 percent); Bossier Parish, LA (12.8 percent); and Long County, GA (13.3 percent).

Shrinking share of zip codes have at least 50 percent equity-rich homes

In the second quarter of 2026, at least half of all mortgaged homes were equity-rich in 21 percent (1,861) of the 8,865 zip codes with sufficient data to analyze.

The zip codes with the highest rates of equity-rich properties were 59047 in Livingston, MT (94.8 percent); 57201 in Watertown, SD (92.3 percent); 57783 in Spearfish, SD (90.4 percent); 57702 in Rapid City, SD (88.8 percent); and 49855 in Marquette, MI (87.9 percent).

Conclusion

The Q2 2026 U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report found that the nation’s share of equity-rich homes continued to shrink to 41.1 percent, near a five-year low. The nationwide rate of seriously underwater homes stayed level quarter-over-quarter, but has risen consistently over the last year.

Report methodology

The ATTOM U.S. Home Equity & Underwater report provides counts of properties based on several categories of equity — or loan to value (LTV) — at the state, metro, county and zip code level, along with the percentage of total properties with a mortgage that each equity category represents. The equity/LTV is calculated based on record-level loan model estimating position and amount of loans secured by a property and a record-level automated valuation model (AVM) derived from publicly recorded mortgage and deed of trust data collected and licensed by ATTOM nationwide for more than 160+ million U.S. properties. The ATTOM Home Equity and Underwater report has been updated and modified to better reflect a housing market focused on the traditional home buying process. ATTOM found that in markets where investors were more prominent, they would offset the loan to value ratio due to sales involving multiple properties with a single jumbo loan encompassing all of the properties. Therefore, going forward such activity is now excluded from the reports in order to provide traditional consumer home purchase and loan activity.

Definitions

Seriously underwater: Loan to value ratio of 125 percent or above, meaning the property owner owed at least 25 percent more than the estimated market value of the property.

Equity-rich: Loan to value ratio of 50 percent or lower, meaning the property owner had at least 50 percent equity.

https://www.attomdata.com/news/market-trends/home-sales-prices/q2-2026-home-equity-and-underwater-report/

Fannie Mae sees wave of senior executive exits

At least 10 senior executives are leaving Fannie Mae, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, raising concerns about stability at the government-backed mortgage company.

Several officials were reportedly informed on Wednesday that their positions had been eliminated, meaning at least some of the departures were not voluntary. Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Finance Agency did not immediately comment.

The departures come as FHFA Director Bill Pulte continues to reshape leadership at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Fannie-Mae-sees-wave-of-senior-executive-exits/66966622

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Evergrande founder, once Asia’s richest man, sentenced to life after property giant’s collapse

The founder of China Evergrande Group, the world’s most-indebted property developer, was sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court on Thursday, five years after the firm’s collapse shook the nation’s economy and financial markets.

Hui Ka Yan, once Asia’s richest man, pleaded guilty in April to eight charges, including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, illegally taking public deposits, illegally extending loans, fraudulently issuing securities and bribery.

Evergrande, once China’s premier developer, has defaulted on most of its $300 billion in liabilities, its troubles symbolizing a crisis in the property sector that has long dragged on the world’s second-biggest economy.

‘What about our money?’

The sentence in the southern city of Shenzhen, which included confiscating all of Hui’s personal property, ends his rags-to-riches story but is unlikely to bring much solace to Evergrande’s domestic and foreign creditors.

Evergrande’s liquidators declined to comment on the sentence. Reuters could not reach legal representatives for Hui, who had not been seen in public since Chinese authorities detained him in 2023, following Evergrande’s default.

In pictures released by the court, a grey-haired Hui, 67, stood flanked by two officers, wearing a long-sleeved, navy blue collared shirt, as the court read out his sentence.

“The criminal acts of Evergrande Group, Hengda Real Estate, and Hui Ka Yan … involved particularly huge amounts and egregious circumstances, caused particularly significant economic losses and caused particularly serious social harm, and should be severely punished according to law,” the court said in a statement.

Comments by Evergrande homeowners in a social media group included: “All ordinary citizens have paid the cost,” “Imprisonment is meant to protect him. If he comes out, his life is in jeopardy” and “What about our money?”

In addition to Hui’s sentence, the court said it had fined Evergrande 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) and its main subsidiary Hengda 7 billion yuan, and sentenced five other senior executives to fines and prison terms ranging from six to 18 years.

Altogether, 56 people linked to Evergrande, other than Hui, received sentences on Thursday, state media CCTV reported.

The company’s failure to repay billions of dollars in wealth-management products triggered protests that threatened social stability after ordinary investors, many of them on lower incomes, saw their holdings wiped out.

Evergrande liquidation drags on for years

A former steel technician raised by his grandmother in a rural village in central Henan province, Hui founded Evergrande in 1996 and turned it into China’s biggest property developer by contracted sales, aggressively taking on debt.

In 2017, Hui had a net worth of $45.3 billion, the highest in Asia, according to Forbes.

A Hong Kong court ordered Evergrande liquidated in 2024, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange delisted it last year, bringing an end to a tumultuous boom-to-bust saga.

The liquidation process has moved at a glacial pace, according to its liquidators, with only about $255 million worth of assets sold as of last August, compared to creditors’ claims totalling $45 billion.

Outside mainland China, the liquidators are battling in court to freeze the offshore assets of Hui and his former spouse in a struggle to claw back $6 billion in dividends and remuneration paid to the founder and other former executives.

In 2024, China’s securities regulator fined Hui $6.6 million and barred him from the securities market for life, after finding Evergrande’s flagship unit had inflated earnings and committed securities fraud.

https://nypost.com/2026/08/20/business/evergrande-founder-hui-ka-yan-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

HOA surveillance cameras secretly installed for ‘neighborhood security’ draw backlash, kill home sales

Big brother is watching your open house.

Homeowners associations across the country are quietly signing up for Flock Safety’s license plate cameras, and the backlash is now strong enough to blow up home sales, kill signed contracts and land cities in court, with New York at the center of the fight.

Nowhere is the backlash more raw than in the Adirondacks, where the fight has already toppled a signed contract and sparked open revolt inside a gated community.

In Saranac Lake, a resident living behind a gate who protested the cameras in his own neighborhood said the issue isn’t security itself. It’s who gets to look.

“The problem I have is not with security cameras. It’s with the Flock system directly. Anyone and their mother can have easy access to this database. The way the data is readily being shared. It is completely unconstitutional,” he told The Post.

Residents said they’d learned about the rollout only after cameras started going up on telephone poles around town.

“These cameras are not going to keep us safe,” resident Sandra Kalinowski told the board, drawing applause from the crowd.

Another resident, David Lynch, pushed the board to reverse course entirely.

“First I believe these cameras are currently in violation of Saranac Lake Police Department policy. Secondly, I believe the public has been misled about Flock’s access to our data. My ask of you tonight is to take these cameras down. The village is conducting surveillance in violation of its own policy,” he said.

The board caved. Trustees voted 4-1 to kill the Flock contract outright and swore off ever signing with the company again, a stunning reversal for a deal that had already been in place for months.

Trustee Aurora White, who pushed the toughest language in the resolution, said the village had no business holding onto the kind of data Flock’s system generates.

“We don’t have the expertise to be proper stewards of this data,” she said.

It’s not just a small mountain town. Communities across New York are colliding with the same technology, and the fights are getting uglier.

In Newburgh, a city council push to rip out Flock cameras entirely failed to get enough votes this week, leaving residents furious and officials divided. Councilman Omari Shakur, who led the failed push, didn’t hide his frustration with the holdup.

“We’ve been talking about this for three months, that’s discussing what we worked on,” he said last week during the failed vote.

In Troy, the standoff escalated into a courtroom fight. After the city council refused to fund its Flock contract, the mayor declared a state of emergency, and the council responded by suing over that move. The dispute now centers on a basic question, how long a city should be allowed to hold onto footage of its own residents driving down the street.

Residents of Troy have since been vandalizing Flock cameras throughout the town in recent months.

New York isn’t alone in seeing this spill into court. In Huntington, West Virginia, a resident sued the city days after officials approved a $2.1 million Flock contract behind closed doors, following a marathon council meeting where more than 50 people spoke out against the technology and protesters circled City Hall.

Aubrey Sparks, legal director of the ACLU of West Virginia, argued the deal shouldn’t have gone through in the first place.

“The legal issues with this contract are numerous, but we are starting with how it was awarded in the first place. Simply put, the city acted hastily and did not follow its own laws when approving this contract, so it should be considered null and void from the start,” Sparks said.

Her colleague, ACLU-WV executive director Eli Baumwell, went further, accusing city officials of working around their own constituents.

“As other towns and cities are waking up to the egregious abuses of this technology, Huntington officials worked behind closed doors for months to thwart the will of their constituents and push this invasive surveillance on the city. We will not stand by while the city runs roughshod over the will of the people and the privacy rights of every person in Huntington,” Baumwell said.

The cameras themselves are simple. Solar powered and bolted onto poles at entrances, exits and other high traffic spots, they photograph every passing vehicle and run the plate through image recognition software, logging the make, model, color and any distinguishing features along with a timestamp. That data feeds into a searchable, cloud-based system that flags vehicles tied to a “hot list,” things like stolen cars or plates linked to a police investigation.

HOAs typically own their own footage, but once a board opts into data sharing, the same records can become visible to thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide, not just the local department that installed the cameras. Retention windows vary by contract, often 30 days or more, and critics say oversight of who actually searches that data is thin to nonexistent.

That lack of oversight is exactly what set off residents in Saranac Lake, where critics argued access to the system stretched well beyond police.

Placement has become its own flashpoint. Flock markets the cameras as a license plate tool for roads and entrances, but residents have pointed out the cameras keep turning up somewhere else entirely, aimed at swimming pools, parks and courts where no car could ever pass. If the only job is reading plates on moving vehicles, that raises an obvious question about why a lens would be pointed at a pool deck instead of a driveway.

For homebuyers, none of this is abstract anymore. More than 200 homeowners associations nationwide have signed on with Flock, often funded straight out of resident dues and frequently without ever putting it to a vote. Boards pitch the cameras as neighborhood security. Buyers increasingly see them as a liability baked into the price of the house, one more line item to weigh alongside the roof and the HVAC.

A wave of buyers nationwide are pulling up crowdsourced surveillance maps before they’ll even walk through a listing, and what they’re finding at HOA-run communities is turning would-be sales into no-shows.

The clearest example ricocheted across social media after a broker, posting in a Reddit forum for real estate agents, described watching a deal fall apart in real time.

“Just had a buyer cancel a showing because HOA has Flock cameras at both entrances, including one by the pool,” the broker wrote.

The post exploded well past its intended audience.

“Yes, this is true. I’m the broker. I scheduled a showing and buyers cancelled because they brought this to my attention,” the broker wrote in an edit. “I was originally asking Realtors (In a sub for Realtors) if they have experienced this. I was not anticipating 500 comments from non agents. But thank you for your input.”

Standard HOA disclosure paperwork almost never mentions surveillance contracts at all, leaving buyers to do their own digging on crowdsourced tools like DeFlock before they’ll even book a tour.

https://nypost.com/2026/08/19/real-estate/hoa-surveillance-cameras-draw-backlash-and-kill-home-sales/

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