A new equity report from CoreLogic, using data from Q3 2014, showed that about 273,000 properties returned to positive equity in the said quarter. This figure brought to a total of 44.6 million homes that were still under mortgage, which is about 90 percent of all mortgaged homes nationwide.
CoreLogic reported that if home prices rose by another 5 percent, an additional number of homeowners, approximated at about of 1 million, would be in negative equity. This was reportedly expected to return into positive territory in the near future.
Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic said that negative equity continued to go down in the third quarter of 2014 as did the number of properties mired in the foreclosure process. He continued by saying that this should hopefully mean less friction in the housing market.
He said, "Better basis for homeownership amidst higher rents should attract more home buyers to the market next year", Builder Online quoted.
The biggest declines in the negative equity share of homeowners were in Nevada, Michigan, Florida and Georgia. However, some homeowners were still considered under equitized. About 9.4 million of homes with positive equity have less than 20 percent, and 1.3 million have less than 5 percent of equity in their properties, Multivu reported.
States with Highest Negative Equity Properties in Third Quarter of 2014:
- Nevada: 25.4%
- Florida: 23.8%
- Arizona: 19%
- Rhode Island: 14.8%
- Illinois: 14.1%
States Highest Positive Equity Properties in Third Quarter of 2014:
- Texas: 97.4%
- Alaska: 97.1%
- Montana: 97.1%
- Hawaii: 96.4%
- North Dakota: 96.1%
States Highest Positive Equity Properties in Third Quarter of 2014 (Metro Level):
- Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas: 97.5%
- Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas: 97%
- Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif.: 96.6%
- Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Ore.: 96.4%
- Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Col.: 95.9%
Overall, about 5.1 million homes or over 10.3 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage were still behind negative equity territory in the third quarter. This was a drop from 5.4 million in the second quarter, but down 3 percent when the total was about 6 million in the third quarter of 2013.
