For 7.5 million, mortgages outweigh home values

More than 7.5 million Americans at the end of September owed more in loans than their house was worth, according to a report by First American CoreLogic Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif.
OCT 31, 2008
By  Bloomberg
More than 7.5 million Americans at the end of September owed more in loans than their house was worth, according to a report by First American CoreLogic Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif. Additionally, 2.1 million mortgages are within 5 percentage points of being in a negative-equity position, according to the report. Six states accounted for 58% of the homes with negative equity. Nevada and Michigan had the highest negative equity, with an estimated 48% and 39%, respectively. Other states with an excess of 20% negative-equity shares were Florida (29%), Arizona (29%), California (27%), Georgia (23%) and Ohio (22%). Excluding the top six states, the remaining states' average negative equity was 12%. New York contains the lowest share of negative equity at 4%, followed by Hawaii (6%), Pennsylvania (6%) and Montana (7%). The data were based on 42 million properties that had a first or second mortgage, which accounted for more than 80% of all mortgages in the United States. In a report released Tuesday, home prices in the nation's 10 largest metro areas fell by a record 17.7%, compared with the year-ago period, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price index.

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