Weekly Real Estate News
Summary
ICE estimates mortgage holders have a record $17.5 trillion in equity, including 2.4 million with at least $1 million. Servicers retained 27% of refinancers in Q3, while cash-out refinances accounted for 75% of refinance-related customer attrition.
American mortgage borrowers collectively held a record $17.5 trillion in home equity during the third quarter, but the growing pool of housing wealth is proving difficult for loan servicers to retain when customers refinance to withdraw cash.
Intercontinental Exchange said Monday that 2.4 million mortgage holders now have at least $1 million in equity, up 6% from a year earlier. The figures come from its November 2026 Mortgage Monitor announcement, which analyzes loan-level mortgage and property data.
The company estimates that mortgage holders’ total equity rose 1.4% year over year. Average tappable equity—the amount a borrower could potentially access while retaining a 20% equity cushion—reached $204,000, up $16,600 from a year earlier. These are estimates of accumulated property wealth, not funds borrowers have withdrawn or cash readily available without borrowing costs.
Equity wealth is concentrated
Nearly nine million mortgage holders had at least $500,000 in equity, according to ICE, an increase of 4% from a year earlier. California accounted for 49% of borrowers with at least $1 million in equity. New York had approximately 189,000 such borrowers, New Jersey 141,000 and Florida 104,000.
Those figures underscore the importance of local home prices. A borrower with seven figures of home equity may still face substantial property taxes, insurance costs and mortgage payments, particularly in high-cost markets. Equity also depends on a property’s estimated market value and outstanding debt; it can decline if prices fall.
Cash-out refinancing tests servicer relationships
ICE said servicers retained just 27% of customers who refinanced in the third quarter, down four percentage points from the preceding quarter. Retention among rate-and-term refinancers fell to 30%, while cash-out retention was 26%. For borrowers who originated loans in 2019 or earlier, cash-out retention was only 15%.
Cash-out refinances accounted for 75% of the refinance borrowers who left their existing servicers, ICE said. That statistic describes refinance-related customer attrition, not three-quarters of all mortgages or all refinances.
For lenders, the competition is not simply over who offers the lowest rate. A homeowner with a relatively inexpensive first mortgage may consider a home-equity line, a closed-end second mortgage or a cash-out refinance. Those alternatives have different costs and repayment structures, and refinancing the entire first mortgage can sacrifice a lower existing rate.
ICE reported that cash-out transactions accounted for approximately one in seven recent rate locks. Purchase loans still represented roughly 80% of locks. Adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for more than 10% of early-October rate locks as ICE observed 30-year fixed rates above 7% during that period. Those are early-October observations, not a claim about today’s mortgage rate.
What comes next
The data suggest an expanding market for home-equity lending, but lenders still must assess borrowers’ income, credit and ability to repay. Large equity balances do not automatically translate into qualified demand. Servicers face a separate challenge: identifying borrowers who are considering a new loan before another institution wins the relationship.
ICE sells mortgage technology and retention analytics, giving it a commercial interest in how lenders respond to the findings. Its research nevertheless provides a useful view of borrower behavior across a large mortgage dataset. The next Mortgage Monitor reports will show whether retention stabilizes and whether cash-out borrowing continues to gain share.
