Though homeowners are seeing their equity grow—properties with negative equity fell 3 percent in the first quarter of this year—2.5 million homes nationwide still are considered underwater, according to CoreLogic’s Home Equity Report. Negative equity refers to borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and can occur because of a decline in a home’s value or an increase in mortgage debt.
But rising home prices are bringing more homeowners into the black. Nationwide, homeowners with a mortgage saw their equity rise 13.3 percent year over year. The average homeowner gained $16,300 in home equity between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.
As such, the number of residential properties in negative equity territory has been falling over the past few years. Negative equity reached a peak of 26 percent of mortgaged properties in the fourth quarter of 2009. The national aggregate value of negative equity was about $284.8 billion at the end of the first quarter. View the chart below to see negative equity by state.
Source: “The Homeowner Equity Report,” CoreLogic (June 2011)
