While more than a quarter of a million homes regained equity during Q1, the percentage of residential properties with negative equity – commonly referred to as being “underwater” or “upside down,” meaning the borrower owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth –Delinquent Under Water Home Mortgages Declines -year-over-year by about 19.4 percent from 6.3 million homes in Q1 2014 down to 5.1 million homes in Q1 2015. The 5.1 million homes with negative equity in Q1 represent about 10.2 percent of all residential mortgages nationwide.
“Many homeowners are emerging from the negative equity trap, which bodes well for a continued recovery in the housing market,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “With the economy improving and homeowners building equity, albeit slowly, the potential exists for an increase in housing stock available for sale, which would ease the current imbalance in supply and demand. There are still about 5 million homeowners who are underwater and we estimate that a further 5 percent appreciation in home values across the U.S. would reduce the number of owners with negative equity by about one million.”
The national aggregate value of homes in negative equity for Q1 was $337.4 billion, which was a year-over-year decline of 13 percent from the $388 billion reported for Q1 2014, according to CoreLogic.
About 9.7 million residential properties out of the 50 million homes nationwide with a mortgage (19.4 percent) have less than 20 percent equity, which is commonly referred to as being “under-equitied.” About 2.7 percent of homes (1.3 million) have less than 5 percent equity, which is commonly referred to as having “near-negative equity.” Borrowers with near-negative equity are at risk of moving into negative equity if home prices drop, according to CoreLogic. Under-equitied borrowers may have a difficult time refinancing their homes or obtaining financing for another home purchase due to underwriting constraints, CoreLogic said. READ MORE
Delinquent Under Water Home Mortgages Declines
http://www.lasvegaswinner.org/delinquent-under-water-home-mortgages-declines/
