Cash Equity

  

It may sound either redundant or contradictory, but “cash equity” is a thing (we promise).

Cash equity is your home value minus your mortgage balance. For instance, if your home is worth $100k and the balance left on your mortgage is $50k, you have a cash equity of $50k in your house.

What’s that? Housing prices in your area just went up, and now your house is worth $130k? Now you have $80k cash equity. Sweet.

Cash equity isn’t just important to homeowners; it’s also important to real estate investors. There are cash equity markets where big financial institutions play around with cash equity capital in the stock market. Hopefully, the values of real estate aren’t inflated, or else we could end up with another crash-and-recession.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is Interest Only Mortgage?17 Views

00:00

Finance allah shmoop what is an interest only mortgage Well

00:07

simply put it's when you only pay the rent on

00:10

the dough you borrowed you don't pay down the principal

00:14

you owe like if you have a three hundred thousand

00:16

dollars mortgage at six percent interest you're paying eighteen grand

00:19

a year to rent that money in six percent times

00:22

three hundred rands eighteen grand a year But the principal

00:25

you borrowed is likely due in thirty years So in

00:28

theory anyway if it were a normal mortgage you'd want

00:32

to pay down the principal little bit a month as

00:34

you go along like averaging ten grand a year in

00:37

principle pay down over thirty years That's times ten grand

00:41

right three hundred grand their total owning your home at

00:44

the end yeah yeah priceless that's what holmes work So

00:47

why would you want an interest only mortgage Well for

00:51

one thing the monthly payments or less so maybe you

00:54

could afford morehouse If on a thirty year three hundred

00:57

thousand dollar loan at six percent you're paying interest only

01:00

while you're writing a check each month for eighteen thousand

01:03

divided by twelve or fifteen hundred bucks maybe that's all

01:06

You can afford well the extra five hundred bucks arm

01:09

or you'd right toe pay down your principles Just not

01:12

something you can really do right now Maybe after three

01:15

years of scrimping and saving well you'll be able to

01:18

start paying down that principal reducing risk and making life

01:21

easier all the way around But right now you can't

01:24

afford it so the only thing you can do is

01:26

do the interest only dance Well the other reason you

01:28

might want an interest only mortgages that interest costs are

01:31

tax deductible Principal pay down costs are not so if

01:37

in a given mortgage payment of say eighteen hundred bucks

01:40

a month where three hundred of it is principal pay

01:43

down and fifteen hundred of it is interest well on

01:47

ly the fifteen hundred is tax deductible That three hundred

01:51

of pay down is not And if you're a forty

01:53

percent taxpayer the government is essentially picking up the tax

01:58

savings on the fifteen hundred times a forty percent at

02:02

six hundred dollars in interest You're paying such that they

02:05

quote feel unquote like the fifteen hundred is really only

02:10

about nine hundred a month in cost to you the

02:13

three hundred bucks and principal paydown feels like a full

02:16

three hundred dollars So some people seeking tio optimize their

02:19

tax deductions live in the world of interest only mortgages

02:23

and let the government for a change You know work 00:02:26.24 --> [endTime] for them How's that feel same all Take it

Up Next

Finance: What is a Mortgage?
345 Views

What is a mortgage? A mortgage is a loan on property. Obviously not many individuals, or companies for that matter, can or want to pay cash for the...

Finance: What is a second mortgage?
4 Views

What's a second mortgage? Easy: it comes after a first mortgage. Hit play for more details.

Finance: What is a Reverse Mortgage?
6 Views

With a reverse mortgage, payments go in the opposite direction of a normal mortgage, where you pledge your home as an asset, and receive $ each month.

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)