Home Equity Demand Report: How Much Cash Homeowners Want, August through October 2026

This note documents the LenderMatch Home Equity Demand Report, which summarizes more than 10,000 requests for home equity financing that homeowners submitted to LenderMatch from August through October 2026. Of the homeowners asked, 83% said they want as much as lenders allow rather than naming an amount. Among the more than 3,000 who typed an amount, the median was $50,000 (middle half $25,000 to $102,500). At a common 80% combined loan-to-value limit, our calculation from the stated home value and balance puts the typical homeowner's available equity at about $130,500; this is a calculation, not an amount anyone asked for. The median stated home value was $335,000 with $97,500 owed, a median equity share of 67%, and 31% owned their home outright. State medians cover 26 states with at least 150 requests each; the could-tap figure ranged from $227,250 in Massachusetts to $98,000 in Arkansas and Louisiana. The figures are self-reported, are not a random sample of homeowners, cover a single three-month period and say nothing about how the money would be used. A state table and a national summary accompany this note as CSV files. Live report with charts and a sortable state table: https://lendermatch.io/data/home-equity-demand/ Data source: requests for home equity financing that homeowners submitted to LenderMatch from August 1, 2026 through October 31, 2026, with test entries removed. Aggregates only; no row-level or personal data is included. Method: "could tap" = max(0, 80% of stated home value minus stated mortgage balance), a LenderMatch calculation at a common 80% combined loan-to-value limit, not an amount requested or offered. Dollar figures cover requests with a stated home value from $50,000 to $5 million. Typed amounts exclude homeowners who asked for the maximum and amounts of zero or $2 million and up. States are listed with at least 150 requests; state medians of typed amounts need at least 100 typed amounts. Medians are continuous percentiles. Limitations: self-reported values; not a random sample of homeowners; one three-month snapshot, so no trend can be drawn; the request does not ask what the money is for. Files: paper.pdf (research note with method, tables, checks and limitations); medians by state (CSV); national summary (CSV); DATA-DICTIONARY.md. Published by LenderMatch (lendermatch.io).