Twenty-Two Percent Of Residential Properties Underwater In Q3

The state of the real estate market continues to worsen. S&P/Case-Shiller data issued earlier today showed home prices dropping in most of the top 20 markets.

New Corelogic information indicates that 22.1% of all homes with mortgages have underwater loans. That represents 10.7 million properties.

The trouble is actually worse than the number of homes worth less than the balance of the mortgages on them. About 2.4 million homeowners have mortgages with less than 5% equity, which Corelogic calls “near negative” equity.

The problem of underwater mortgages is, not surprisingly, in the states where home prices have fallen the most from 2006 peaks and where firms which include RealtyTrac show that foreclosures are the highest

As Corelogic reports

Nevada has the highest negative equity percentage with 58 percent of all of its mortgaged properties underwater, followed by Arizona (47 percent), Florida (44 percent), Michigan (35 percent) and Georgia (30 percent). This is the first quarter that Georgia entered the top five, surpassing California which had been in the top five since tracking began in 2009.

The fewest underwater mortgages as a percentage of total are New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Montana.

Douglas A. McIntyre