As real estate goes, 2009 is gone and “fingers crossed” it isn’t ever coming back. As data released Wednesday shows, the number of homeowners who are upside down, in negative equity, continues to decline.
CoreLogic, a provider of consumer, financial and property data, analytics and services to business and government, released the report on Dec. 12.
Being underwater, upside down decreased by 4% to 2 million homes or 3.7% of all mortgaged properties, according to the report, which was shared on the Calculated Risk blog. And, 78,000 properties, that were once negative, left the upside down behind and regained equity in the third quarter of 2019.
According to the report, the 64% of U.S. homeowners with mortgages have seen their equity increase 5.1% year-over-year – a gain of almost $457 billion since the third quarter of 2018.
Meanwhile, the number of mortgaged properties in negative equity declined 10% or roughly 220,000 homes in the third quarter of 2019, the report said. In comparison, during the same time period in 2018, 4.1% percent of homes or roughly 2.2 million were upside down.
“Ten years ago, during the depths of the Great Recession, more than 11 million homeowners had negative equity or 25% of mortgaged homes,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “After more than eight years of rising home prices and employment growth, underwater owners have been slashed to just 2 million, or less than 4% of mortgaged homes.”
Negative equity can occur for a number of reasons including a decline in the home value or an increase in mortgage debt or both.
CoreLogic began its equity data analysis in the third quarter of 2009. During the fourth quarter of 2009 negative equity peaked at 26% of mortgaged properties.
Even though the numbers of properties in negative equity has declined, there are still nearly 2% of homes with a loan-to-value 125% and higher, according to the report. Yet, year-over-year, the number of homeowners in the negative has declined from 2.2 million to 2 million, according to the report.
