IRVINE, CA — RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the nation’s
leading source for comprehensive housing data, today released its U.S. Home
Equity & Underwater Report for the third quarter of 2014, which shows that
8.1 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 15 percent of all
properties with a mortgage and an estimated $1.4 trillion in negative equity.
“The decrease in underwater properties is promising but the
estimated $1.4 trillion in negative equity means that the flood waters are not
receding as quickly as they were before, corresponding to slowing home price
appreciation,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
“Slower price appreciation means the 8 million homeowners seriously underwater
could still have a long road back to positive equity.
“We wanted to paint a picture of the typical seriously
underwater homeowner and what we found was that homeowners who bought or
refinanced during the housing bubble (2004 to 2008), own a home worth less than
$200,000, live in the Sun Belt or Rust Belt and live in a Democratic
Congressional District were more likely to be seriously underwater,” Blomquist
noted.
“On the other end, the highest percentages of equity rich
homeowners were those who bought or refinanced between 1994 and 1998, those
with properties valued at $500,000 or more, live in NY, CA, DC and these folks
also tend to live in Democratic Congressional districts.”
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please
contact:
Jennifer von Pohlmann
949.502.8300949.502.8300, ext. 139
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