The war chest of home equity held by U.S. homeowners age 62 and older continued to grow in the first quarter, even as home price gains softened in much of the country, according to recently released industry data.

Figures prepared by Riskspan, a data intelligence provider, and published by the National Reverse Mortgage Lending Association (NRMLA) on Monday show “senior home values” gained nearly $315 billion over the first three months of 2026. That 1.8% increase raised total senior housing wealth to $14.92 trillion, a record for the companies’ Reverse Mortgage Market Index.

Reverse mortgages enable homeowners age 62 and older to draw down their home equity without making monthly payments, though interest on the drawdown accrues. Repayment is not required until the last borrower leaves the home, sells the home or dies.

Senior-held home equity was roughly $4 trillion at its 2006 peak before the 2008 financial crisis. In the first quarter of 2020, senior-held home equity was around $7.54 trillion, according to NRMLA data.

Home values and equity levels ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic and remain near historically high levels on a national scale. Homeowners age 62 and older own about 4 in 10 homes in the U.S., NRMLA estimates.

“With senior home equity reaching another record level, many older Americans have greater financial flexibility to help address rising living expenses, healthcare costs or other retirement needs,” said NRMLA President Steve Irwin in a press release.

Other industry groups have cautioned, however, that the outsized share of total housing wealth controlled by homeowners age 62 and older threatens to exacerbate existing housing access challenges, such as higher downpayment requirements that have ingrained intergenerational wealth disparities.

“Whether or not you can make a down payment is often based on whether parents can assist financially,” said the Community Home Lenders of America, which represents mostly small and midsize mortgage banks, in an April white paper laying out top-line challenges facing younger first-time homebuyers.

Total homeowner equity was just shy of $35 trillion at the end of the first quarter, according to Federal Reserve Board data, of which homeowners 62 and older held almost 43%.

“Despite the availability of mortgage products that require relatively low down payments, the average down payment — as a percentage of the purchase price — for successful first-time buyers tends to be larger during booming or extremely tight housing markets historically,” wrote the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in a November 2024 economic insights report focused on “historical challenges” facing first-time homebuyers.

In much of the U.S., such tight market conditions persisted from early 2020 through 2024 — and across Midwest and Northeast markets they remain entrenched. Median home prices hit an all-time record of $440,600 in June, according to the National Association of Realtors, though regional market performance has been diverging sharply.

First-time homebuyer share of Ginnie Mae purchase issuance was 73% as of April, the latest month for which data is available, according to the government-run securitizer. That compares to about 55% and 50% first-time buyer shares for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

Though 70% of loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration involved no downpayment assistance activity (DPA) as of April, relative-funded assistance was the most prevalent source of DPA across the 30% of loans that did, at nearly 17%.