Home equity since purchase
How much equity have you built since you bought?
Enter what you paid, your down payment, your rate and your ZIP code. You get the equity you have today: what your home is worth if it grew like homes in your area did, minus what you still owe, with both calculations on the page.
Estimate your equity today
Fill in the purchase and the loan you took to buy, then press the button. The example below is a real result.
Informational only, not professional or lending advice and not an appraisal. It estimates a home that tracked its area’s average and a loan paid exactly on schedule; yours may differ on both.
Methodology
The formula. Equity today = value today − balance today. Value today = purchase price × (index now ÷ index at purchase), using the FHFA House Price Index for the smallest area with usable data (ZIP, then county, then metro, then state), exactly as the value calculator does. The result names the level it used, the two index values and every level it skipped.
The balance. Loan amount = price − down payment. The monthly payment on a fixed-rate loan is P = L·r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)−n), with r the annual rate divided by 12 and n the term in months. The balance after k payments is L·(1 + r)k − P·((1 + r)k − 1) ÷ r. This is the standard amortization schedule every fixed-rate mortgage follows. k counts the months from the purchase month to this month, since the first payment is due the month after closing. A balance that has reached zero shows as paid off.
The split. Equity is shown three ways: the down payment you started with, the appreciation the index implies, and the principal your payments retired (loan amount minus balance). The three sum to the equity figure. Interest, taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance never reduce the balance and are not shown.
Data. The index files are a committed snapshot pulled from FHFA (last pull 2026-09-28): quarterly state and metro series through 2026 Q2, annual county and ZIP series dated March 31, 2026. Nothing you type is sent to this site’s servers; the browser fetches the index files and does the math.
What this estimate cannot know
- Your house. The value tracks the area’s average. Renovations, condition and lot are invisible to it, and the FHFA index misses cash, jumbo, FHA and VA sales.
- Your real balance. Extra payments, a refinance, a second mortgage, a HELOC, an adjustable rate or a missed payment all change it. Your lender’s statement is the truth; this is the on-schedule figure.
- Selling costs. Agent commissions, transfer taxes and repairs come out of the value before you see cash. Equity is not net proceeds.
- What a lender will count. Lenders use their own appraisal and cap what you can borrow against the home. This is not an appraisal or an offer of credit.
Last reviewed: September 2026. Data vintage: FHFA master file 2026 Q2; annual county and ZIP files dated March 31, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as home equity here?
Equity is what your home is worth today minus what you still owe on it. This calculator estimates the value by scaling your purchase price by the change in the FHFA House Price Index for your area, and the balance by running your original loan through the standard amortization schedule. It does not subtract selling costs, so it is equity, not net proceeds from a sale.
I refinanced, paid extra, or have a HELOC. Is the balance still right?
No. The balance assumes one fixed-rate loan paid exactly on schedule from the month after closing. If you refinanced, enter the new loan's amount, rate, term and start date instead of the original purchase loan, and keep the purchase price and date for the value side. Extra payments and second mortgages are not modeled; your lender's statement has the real balance, and you can subtract it from the value shown yourself.
Why does it say how much came from appreciation and how much from principal?
Because they behave differently. Appreciation is the area's price change applied to your purchase price; it can reverse. Principal paid is money you sent the lender that reduced the balance; it does not go away when prices fall. Seeing the split tells you how much of your equity depends on the market staying where it is.
Can I borrow against this equity?
Lenders decide that with their own appraisal and their own limits, commonly capping total loans at 80 to 85 percent of the appraised value. This tool is an area-based estimate, not an appraisal, and it is not lending advice. Use it to understand roughly where you stand before talking to a lender.
Guides
- How Much Equity Do I Have in My Home? Value Minus Balance, Worked ThroughEquity is what your home is worth minus what you still owe. How to estimate both from the FHFA index and your loan terms, with a worked example and the split.
Related tools
Enter what you paid, when, and your ZIP. See what your home is worth today if it grew like homes in your area did, with the FHFA index values and the math shown.
Open tool →Home Price Change Since Any YearPick a state or metro area and a month since 1975. See how much home prices have gone up since then, per year, with the FHFA index values and the same window for the state and the US.
Open tool →Can You Cancel PMI Yet? Loan-to-Value CheckYour scheduled balance against what you paid and against today's FHFA-indexed value, next to the 80%, 78% and current-value thresholds, with the month each is reached.
Open tool →