Spring Price Increases Barely Budge Underwater Homes | South Salem Real Estate

Price increases slowed so much in the second quarter that the numbers of seriously underwater homes and the percentage of equity rich properties barely increased over the first quarter of 2014.

The second quarter of 2014 saw only a small percentage decline in the percentage homes that were seriously underwater, 17.2 percent versus 17.4 percent in the first quarter of 2014, bringing it to the lowest level since RealtyTrac began reporting negative equity in the first quarter of 2012.
Some 9.1 million U.S. residential properties were seriously underwater — where the combined loan amount secured by the property is at least 25 percent higher than the property’s estimated market value — representing 17 percent of all properties with a mortgage.

The universe of equity-rich properties — those with at least 50 percent equity — didn’t change at all from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2014, at 18.8 percent of all properties with a mortgage or 9.9 million properties.

Another 8.8 million properties are on the verge of resurfacing in the second quarter of 2014, with between 10 percent negative equity and 10 percent positive equity, representing 17 percent of all properties with a mortgage, up from 8.5 million representing 16 percent of all properties with a mortgage in the first quarter of 2014.

Fewer distressed properties had negative equity in the second quarter, with 44 percent of all properties in the foreclosure process seriously underwater — down from 45 percent in the first quarter of 2014 and down from 57 percent in the second quarter of 2013. The share of foreclosures with positive equity decreased to 34 percent in the second quarter, down from 35 percent in the first quarter. Top states for foreclosures with equity include Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Louisiana.





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http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/07/spring-price-increases-barely-budge-underwater-homes/