If you own a home in Oklahoma City, there’s a strong chance you’ve built more home equity than you realize, and that changes your options even with today’s higher mortgage rates. New national data shows nearly half of all mortgaged homeowners owe less than half of what their home is worth. If you’ve assumed rates have you locked in place, your equity position may tell a different story.

A recent survey found that 48% of homeowners say they aren’t planning to move this year. Many of them feel stuck, mostly because of where mortgage rates sit today. But being equity-rich changes the calculation in ways a lot of people haven’t worked through yet.

Here’s what the data actually shows, why so many homeowners feel locked in place, and what your equity could mean for the decisions in front of you.

What “Equity Rich” Actually Means

“Equity-rich” is a specific term in real estate. It means you owe less than 50% of what your home is currently worth.

So if your home is worth $400,000 and your remaining mortgage balance is $180,000, you’re equity-rich. More than half the home’s value sits on your side of the ledger.

The distinction matters. Equity-rich doesn’t just mean you have some equity. It means you have enough of it to create real financial flexibility you may not have considered.

What the Numbers Show

ATTOM’s Q1 2026 Home Equity and Underwater Report puts the national equity-rich rate at 43.3% of all mortgaged residential properties.

That’s down slightly from the prior quarter and the lowest level since late 2021. But the context cuts both ways. Even at a five-year low, nearly half of all mortgaged homeowners in the country owe less than half of what their home is worth.

The state and metro breakdowns vary widely. Vermont leads the country, with more than 85% of mortgaged homes equity-rich. New Hampshire, Montana, Rhode Island, and Hawaii round out the top five. Among metro areas, San Jose tops the list, followed by Los Angeles and San Diego. Some Sun Belt markets moved the other direction, with Florida and Arizona both giving back several points over the quarter.

Oklahoma City tends to sit closer to the national middle rather than at either extreme. Our metro hasn’t seen the dramatic equity swings of the coastal markets, partly because home values here have grown at a steadier, less volatile pace. For most local homeowners, that steadiness has quietly built a meaningful equity position without the boom-and-correction pattern other markets experienced.

Why So Many Homeowners Feel Stuck

If you locked in a mortgage rate near 3% a few years ago, the idea of selling and buying again understandably doesn’t sound appealing.

With 30-year rates currently around 6.42% and no Fed cuts expected until late 2027, trading a low payment for one that’s nearly double is a hard sell. No one would fault you for hesitating.

This is the lock-in effect, and it’s real. The survey from Point found that 48% of homeowners aren’t planning to move this year, citing rate lock-in and general uncertainty as the main reasons.

What that rate comparison leaves out, though, is the role your equity plays, and how much it could reduce your next monthly payment.

How Your Equity Changes the Math

When you’re equity-rich, you’re not approaching your next purchase the way you did the first one.

A larger equity position means a larger down payment, which means a smaller loan, which means the monthly payment on a higher-rate mortgage may not be as painful as you’d expect. The rate is only one input. The loan size is the other, and equity directly controls it.

Depending on how much you’ve built, you may have more options than you think:

• Apply a significantly larger down payment to your next home, reducing the loan amount and softening the rate impact
• Use a HELOC to access equity without selling
• Sell, then rent temporarily while you wait for rates or prices to shift
• Buy your next home outright, with no mortgage at all

There’s also a local consideration worth noting. Oklahoma’s property tax structure and the relative affordability of the OKC metro mean that homeowners trading within the area often find the total cost picture more manageable than the headline rate suggests, especially when a strong equity position is doing some of the work.

Most homeowners run the numbers on today’s rates without accounting for what their equity does to that figure. The monthly payment looks very different when you’re bringing 50% or more to the table.