In the face of rising home prices, over 30 percent of borrowers, or close to 16 million homeowners, were underwater on their mortgage payment during the first quarter of 2012, according to Zillow.
In some states the percentage of underwater borrowers is significantly higher than the national average, including Arizona (52 percent), Georgia (46.8 percent), Florida (46.3 percent) and Michigan (41.7 percent), according to Zillow data.
Nevada borrowers are struggling the most with two-thirds of homeowners with mortgages that have negative equity in their homes.
The percentage of borrowers who owed more on their home than it was worth increased to 31.4 percent during the quarter, up slightly from 31.1 percent three months earlier, according to Zillow.
In the year-ago period, 32.4 percent of all borrowers had negative equity on their loan.
While home prices have started to inch up again, delays in the processing of foreclosures means many delinquent borrowers are still on the books, keeping the underwater homeowner percentages high, Zillow noted.
