The range however is wide, from less than a month to more than 6 years.  Much depends on who is building the house, for what purpose, and where.

, writing in NAHB’s Eye on Housing Blog, says that houses built for sale took the shortest time in 2017, 6.9 months from permit to completion while houses built by owners acting as their own general contractors took 12.3 months. Homes built by hired contractors were in the middle at around 9 months.  Where homes were being built for sale or were custom homes built by contractors on the owner’s land, construction typically began within a month after the permit was pulled while owners overseeing their own construction had a one-month lag.

It took the longest to build a home in the New England division, 10.4 months, followed closely by the Middle Atlantic at 10.3 months. The East South Central, East North Central, and Pacific divisions also exceeded the 7.5-month national average.  The shortest period, 6.4 months, was in the South Atlantic division.  As to permits, the lag before construction started ranged from 17 days in the Mountain division to 39 days in the Pacific.

The total building time was considerably shorter inside than outside metropolitan areas, a pattern that held in all census divisions but the West North Central division.  Some of the location differences were striking; with construction outside metro areas taking more than a third longer in New England and the Pacific.

The SOC also collects sale information for houses built for sale, including the sale date when buyers sign the sale contracts or make a deposit. Looking at single-family homes completed in 2017, 31.6 percent of homes were sold before construction started, 28.8 percent while under construction, 11.3 percent within a month of completion, and 16.6 percent sold after completion. The percent of single-family houses completed in 2017 and remaining unsold as of the first quarter of 2018 was 11.6 percent.

Tappable equity grew by $380 billion in the first quarter of 2018.  That 7 percent increase is the largest single quarter growth in Black Knight’s records, which go back to 2005.  Equity growth is usually greatest in the first and second quarters of each year, but the first quarter growth this year was nearly 30 percent greater than the same quarter in 2017.  And, as the chart below shows, second quarter growth has exceeded first quarter growth for five of the last six years.

Homeowners nationwide have a total of $5.8 trillion in tappable equity and that number has increased by 16.5 percent or $820 billion over the last 12 months.  The total is the highest ever recorded and is 16 percent higher than at the previous peak of home prices in mid-2006.

Another report earlier this month, this one from CoreLogic put total equity at $15 trillion.  This was an increase of $544 billion during the first quarter and $544 billion year-over-year.

This equity growth is, or course, being driven by rising home prices.  Black Knight puts that growth at 2.5 percent in just the first three months of this year. This works out to an increase of $6,900 for the median priced home in the first quarter and $14.700 compared to the first quarter of 2017.  The average homeowner has $113,900 in tappable equity. As we will see in a minute however, those averages are misleading.

A decline in LTV’s also plays a role; the national average is now 52 percent.  CoreLogic pointed out that the growth in mortgage debt turned negative in 2008 and remained so until 2015 and has increased only slowly since then. From the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of this year it grew by $280 billion, much more slowly than home values. It is now estimated at $10.1 trillion.

Black Knight says nearly 70 percent of the equity gain in the first quarter is tappable, assuming a cap of 80 percent in combined CLTV.  However, there is a significant disincentive for equity-rich homeowners to refinance.  Nearly 80 percent of the total tappable equity is held by homeowners who hold first mortgages with interest rates below 4.5 percent and 60 percent is held by homeowners whose mortgages rates are below 4.0 percent.

This should be an attractive market for lenders’ offering home equity lines of credit or HELOCS. Not only do these homeowners have significant equity and first mortgages they may be reluctant to give up, but 70 percent of homeowners with interest rates below the current levels have credit scores above 760.

However, as stated earlier, the wealth represented by increasing equity is very unequally distributed.  San Jose, for example, has seen the average mortgaged home gain $191,500 in tappable equity in the last year, more than twice the average in any other market. The metro area is estimated to have the 4^th largest pool of such equity in the country, $336,000 billion, despite being the 34^th largest metro in population.  The average per mortgaged homeowner is $695,000.

As can be seen from the map below, several other California cities as well as other area on both coasts, in Texas, and a few in the Midwest have benefitted disproportionately from the rise in equity, while in most parts of the country there have been considerably lower gains, or none at all.

While the prospect of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needing taxpayer money conjures up images of a failing mortgage market requiring a government bailout, that’s very far from the case this time around.  In fact, taxpayers continue to come out way ahead with respect to the GSEs’ conservatorship agreement, even after the draws that will be needed to cover 4th quarter losses.  At issue are one-time write-downs arising from accounting changes in response to the new tax bill.  After this, it should be business as usual (a business that has been returning a significant amount of money to US taxpayers).

Both Freddie Mae and Fannie Mae posted strong full-year incomes for 2017 despite that both also suffered fourth quarter losses courtesy of the new tax law.  Fannie’s comprehensive income was $2.5 billion after a loss of $6.7 billion in the fourth quarter. Freddie Mac’s numbers for the two respective periods were $5.6 billion and a $3.3 billion loss.

Fannie Mae said its full-year results were down from $12.3 billion for all of 2016 although its 2017 pre-tax net was higher, $18.4 billion versus 18.3 billion. The $6.5 billion net loss for the quarter was down from net income of $3.0 billion in Quarter 3.

The fourth quarter loss was the result of a remeasurement of the company’s deferred tax assets due to the enactment of the Tax Act. The result was a one-time $9.9 billion provision for federal income taxes.

Fannie Mae had net revenues of $5.5 billion in the fourth quarter compared to 6.5 billion in the third. Full-year revenues were $23.0 billion, compared to $22.3 billion a year earlier.  Net income from interest declined for both the fourth quarter and the year because of a decline in income from the company’s retained mortgage portfolio. The loss was offset for the year by a substantial increase in fees and other income.

In December, the company’s conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reached an agreement with the Treasury Department to modify the dividend provisions of the senior preferred stock agreement to allow Fannie Mae to increase its capital reserve amount to $3.0 billion and reduce the dividend amount otherwise payable for the fourth quarter by $2.4 billion.  Further, the company said it expects FHFA to submit a request to Treasury on the company’s behalf for $3.7 billion to cover the quarter’s deficit.

Fannie Mae said it provided approximately $570 billion in liquidity to the mortgage market last year and was the largest issuer of single-family mortgage related securities in both the fourth quarter and the year, with a market share of 39 and 37 percent respectively. It also provided more the $67 billion in multifamily and other rental financing and supported 770,000 units of multifamily housing during the year.

Freddie Mac posted net interest income of $3.5 billion during the fourth quarter and $14.2 billion for the year. Third quarter interest income was slightly under 3.5 billion, while the full-year income in 2016 was $14.4 billion.

Freddie Mac wrote down $5.4 billion in net deferred assets because of the tax law. This loss was partially offset by a $2.9 billion after-tax liquidation settlement received in the third quarter. The company will also draw on its Treasury line to cover its fourth quarter net deficit and expects to borrow $0.3 billion.  This will reduce the amount remaining under its stock agreement to $140.2 billion.

The company said its guarantee portfolio grew by 6 percent during the year, the highest growth rate in the past ten years, and exceeded $2 trillion for the first time.  The single-family guarantee portfolio grew 4 percent and the multifamily guarantee portfolio increased by 28 percent.

Despite the shortfall in their fourth quarter results, both companies said they expect the new tax law to benefit them going forward.  Fannie Mae estimates it will be henceforth be paying taxes at a 20 percent rate.

The company’s CEO, Donald H. Layton said, “We now have a fully competitive company that is executing on its mission, protecting taxpayers and helping to build a better housing finance system for the nation.”