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. 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.