What growing home values could mean for your finances—and when it may make sense to tap them.
A lot has happened in the last five or six years. Mortgage rates fell, then climbed. Home prices surged. And if you bought a house in the Philadelphia area during that stretch, there’s a good chance your home’s estimated value has moved in one direction while your mortgage balance has moved in the other.
Put those two things together, and you may have considerably more home equity than when you first got the keys.
In fact, home prices across the greater Philadelphia area have risen 53.5 percent since 2020, after accounting for factors like a home’s size, age, and condition, according to Kevin Gillen, principal fellow at Drexel University’s Henderson Real Estate Institute…