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Original poster

If you own your house, what kind of equity (in percentage terms) do you have roughly?

138 replies

Twiglett · 03/04/2008 13:20

Just because we're talking about the housing market dropping and the potential re-emergence of negative equity I'm wondering what kind of exposure people have.

I'll start by saying we're bloody lucky in that we have something like 73% equity at a conservative valuation of current prices which means we could easily swallow a 25 - 35% market fall

what about you?

OP posts:
shreddies · 03/04/2008 13:22

80%. But we need to move to somewhere bigger, we can hang on another year, or possibly two. I'm very glad we didn't stretch ourselves last year.

yurt1 · 03/04/2008 13:23

About 60%. Mortgage too big, other debts too big, but equity is OK.

We're remortgaging at the moment (2 year fixed just finished).

throckenholt · 03/04/2008 13:23

difficult to value ours as we are in the process of major rennovation so probably noone would want to buy it at the moment - but when it is done equity would probably be similar to yours.

We were lucky that DH bought it in the early 90s before prices started going nuts - certainly couldn't afford to buy it now.

OrmIrian · 03/04/2008 13:25

80%. Which is great but we still can't afford to move. Not realistically.

justabouttohavelunch · 03/04/2008 13:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mumblechum · 03/04/2008 13:26

About 85% equity thank f*

TartanKnickers · 03/04/2008 13:27

About 60% in the house we live in but we have a flat which we rent out which is in about 30% negative equity

Lulumama · 03/04/2008 13:27

i know approx in monetary value, but cannot work it out as a percentage, am being a divvy!

Lulumama · 03/04/2008 13:27

i know approx in monetary value, but cannot work it out as a percentage, am being a divvy!

binkleandflip · 03/04/2008 13:27

mortgage paid on our house and at last valuation it has doubled in value since dh bought it 8 years ago so does that mean we have 100% equity (not so good with the whole finance thing )

Are house prices set to fall then?

shrinkingsagpuss · 03/04/2008 13:28

crumbs we've got about 40% equity. so in real terms we are mortgaged pretty highly

soapbox · 03/04/2008 13:28

Equity is about 70% (ie mortgage is for 30%) of current value. The 30% mortgage outstanding is offset by our savings account though - so in reality we pay no interest on the mortgage and all payments we make are just paying off the capital that is left to pay. We could opt to just pay it all off, but we felt that keeping the money in savings left us with a bit more flexibility should we need it for any reason.

pooka · 03/04/2008 13:28

100%
Have been very lucky in terms of buying at the right time. Also PIL helped a great deal.
Would like to move one day, but will be saving money towards that rather than getting mortgage.

Niecie · 03/04/2008 13:29

We have 37% but we have enough to buy a small 2 bed house outright so I don't feel horrendously exposed. We could sell up, have no significant income and still have a roof over our heads if the very worst came to the worst.

We have moved every 3 to 4 years which is why our mortgage is big and our equity is small. We won't be moving in the foreseeable future so hopefully we will start improving our debt to equity ratio a bit in the next couple of years.

Lulumama · 03/04/2008 13:29

35% or so i think

pooka · 03/04/2008 13:29

By buying at the right time, I mean that as we've moved from flat to house to next house and so on, have been able to do so without extending the mortgage IYSWIM.

Prufrock · 03/04/2008 13:29

Equity of 72.5% at a conservative valuation. And as houses of this size are rare and we are in a commutable village so get Londoners moving out and still seeing prices here as being cheap we are unlikely to drop by that much.

mankyscotslass · 03/04/2008 13:30

About 60-70%, we were lucky, bought 9 years ago and have never remortaged to the hilt. We need a bigger place, but until I am working we will manage.

claricebeansmum · 03/04/2008 13:30

Probably 50% but mortgage is 2x earnings so affordability is fine.

Fixed rate ends in June and then not sure - watch and wait I think

bohemianbint · 03/04/2008 13:31

45% ish, I think.

Iota · 03/04/2008 13:32

100%

hardly surprising as I bought my first house 22 years ago

yurt1 · 03/04/2008 13:32

I think people are doing this in 2 different ways. I was following Twigs way (I think) but mortgage is 60% so I guess we have 40% of the value.

Slouchy · 03/04/2008 13:33

Round about 25% of this house is 'ours'.

titchy · 03/04/2008 13:34

60% equity, but 5 times salary mortgage over 25 years (will finish after dh retires) eek

elliott · 03/04/2008 13:34

Clearly mumsnetters are atypical! I would have thought that most people who became homeowners before the current bubble will have a reasonable percentage of equity. The problems will arise from first time buyers who stretched themselves to get on the ladder, and people who have over-extended themselves in terms of mortgage when trading up. Having equity doesn't really help if you can't meet your mortgage payments, does it? (although I suppose you could borrow against the equity to pay the mortgage, but that wouldn't be sustainable).
Negative equity only becomes a problem if you have to sell (or get repossessed) - the whole 'crystalising your losses' thing.
Anyway to answer your question, about 90%.
Prices here are not falling in our price bracket, but things are not really shifting.