Home Equity Lending News

HEL Balance Growth almost Double HELOC Rate


Over the past year, the annual growth rate in collective home-equity loan balances was nearly double the rate that it was for home-equity lines of credit outstanding. The latest data on average available equity showed a quarter-over-quarter improvement.

The origination of HELOCs with a balance, which is reported on a one-quarter delay, soared to 317,600 units in the third-quarter 2022 from 210,200 lines opened during the same three months in 2021, according to a TransUnion presentation.

The Chicago-based insights and information company noted that aggregate HELOAN balances have shot up 16.9 percent from the end of 2021 to the end of last year.

But the year-over-year growth in HELOC balances was just 8.9 percent during the fourth quarter, though that was a huge reversal from an 11.2 percent annual decline in the fourth-quarter 2021. It was also the first fourth-quarter increase in at least well over a decade.

The median amount of equity, which is reported on a one-month lag, landed at $244,000 in the third quarter, increasing from $236,000 in the second quarter.

Ninety-day delinquency on HELOANs finished last year at 0.83 percent, the same as at the end of the third quarter. Serious delinquency on HELOCs was 0.24 percent, also unchanged.