GLOPRAGlobal Property Radar

US home equity loans grow 7.7% in third quarter 2026

US banks grew home equity lines at a 7.7% annual rate in the third quarter while closed-end residential loans grew just 0.6%, Federal Reserve data show.

The facts

  • The Federal Reserve's H.8 release of 6 November 2026 puts revolving home equity loans at US commercial banks growing at a +7.7% break-adjusted, seasonally adjusted annual rate in the third quarter of 2026, against 0.6% for closed-end residential loans.
  • On the same basis, revolving home equity grew 9.2% in August and 5.4% in September, while closed-end residential loans grew 1.0% and 0.6%. Residential real estate loans as a whole grew 1.4% in the quarter.
  • Commercial real estate lending ran faster than residential: 3.6% in the quarter, 5.5% in August and 5.2% in September. All real estate loans grew 2.6%.
  • In levels for the week ending 28 October, banks held 2,702.9 billion USD of residential real estate loans, split into 291.7 billion of revolving home equity and 2,411.2 billion closed-end. Commercial real estate loans stood at 3,154.7 billion and all real estate loans at 5,857.6 billion.

What it means for your money

  • Banks are growing equity lines, not purchase loans. But most US mortgages are sold on, so this is a partial view of credit.
  • Glopra's latest United States snapshot puts the average home at 369,678 USD and average rent at 1,948 USD a month, a gross yield of 6.3%, the level a financing cost has to stay below.
  • An owner already holding is on the side banks are competing for: their revolving home equity book rose from 273.7 billion USD in September 2025 to 291.2 billion USD in September 2026.

What to watch

  • Whether September's slowdown in equity lines, 5.4% after 9.2% in August, carries into the fourth quarter.
  • H.8 growth rates are break adjusted and also adjusted for nonbank structure activity of 5 billion USD or more, while the dollar levels are only seasonally adjusted. The two tables cannot be reconciled, and a growth rate should not be worked out from the levels.
  • H.8 counts loans banks hold on their own books, so a mortgage written and then sold to the agencies never appears in it. The release is weekly.

Sources: Federal Reserve https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h8/20261106/

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