How Much Home Equity Do You Actually Have?

That extra room you added. The car you paid off while you were living there. The whole time, your home has probably been quietly building value right alongside you — most homeowners just never sit down and do the math.

• Your home's current market value — not what you paid, what it's worth today.
• What you still owe — your current mortgage payoff balance, plus any second lien already on the property.
• Your lender's maximum combined loan-to-value (CLTV) — most HELOC programs cap total borrowing around 80–85% of your home's value, though this varies by lender, credit profile, and state.

Take your home's value, multiply by your lender's CLTV cap, then subtract what you still owe on your mortgage. What's left is roughly your usable equity — the amount a HELOC could potentially make available to you, before any lender-specific adjustments for credit, income, or occupancy. This is a general illustration, not a quote — get a real number by talking to a licensed loan officer.

What to do with the number

If the estimate looks meaningful, the next step is a real conversation — not a form that gets sold to fifteen different lenders. One phone call, one loan officer, and a straight answer about what's actually available to you.