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How Unison Is Helping Homeowners Access Over $11 Trillion in Untapped Home Equity
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Trillions of dollars in home equity sit unused across the country. Unison's Equity Sharing Agreement offers one way for homeowners to access a portion of it, with no new monthly payments, in exchange for a share of the home's future change in value.
Created by Steve Jones Published 08/26/26 AT 2:17 PM EDT
American homeowners are sitting on a remarkable amount of wealth that most of them are not using. As of the August 2026 Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Mortgage Monitor, U.S. mortgage holders held about $11.7 trillion in tappable home equity, roughly $212,000 per borrower on average. Yet much of that value stays locked in place, because the traditional ways to reach it, such as home equity lines of credit, cash-out refinances, and home equity loans, do not fit every situation. Unison offers another path: an Equity Sharing Agreement (ESA) that lets homeowners access a portion of their equity without taking on new monthly payments. It is one option among several, not the right fit for everyone, but for many homeowners it fills a real gap.
How Much Home Equity Are Americans Sitting On? Home equity has quietly become one of the largest stores of household wealth in the country, and homeowners are using only a small share of it. "Tappable equity" is ICE Mortgage Monitor's term for the portion of home equity an owner could access while still keeping at least 20 percent equity in the home. It is not the same as total home equity, which the Mortgage Monitor tracks separately at a much larger figure that includes the equity owners are expected to retain. As of the August 2026 ICE Mortgage Monitor, that tappable pool stood at about $11.7 trillion held by roughly 47.5 million mortgage holders with accessible equity. Even with that much value available, homeowners are converting only a small share of it into cash. In the first quarter of 2026, they withdrew about $47 billion in equity, according to the ICE