CoreLogic released the results this week of its Equity Report for the first quarter of 2015, showing an increase in home equity nationwide of $694 billion year over year.
Approximately 254,000 properties regained equity in the first quarter of 2015, bringing the total of residential mortgaged properties with equity nationwide up to 44.9 million – approximately 90 percent of all mortgages.
While more than a quarter of a million homes regained equity during Q1, the percentage of residential properties with negative equity – commonly referred to as being “underwater” or “upside down,” meaning the borrower owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth – declined year-over-year by about 19.4 percent from 6.3 million homes in Q1 2014 down to 5.1 million homes in Q1 2015. The 5.1 million homes with negative equity in Q1 represent about 10.2 percent of all residential mortgages nationwide.
“Many homeowners are emerging from the negative equity trap, which bodes well for a continued recovery in the housing market,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “With the economy improving and homeowners building equity, albeit slowly, the potential exists for an increase in housing stock available for sale, which would ease the current imbalance in supply and demand. There are still about 5 million homeowners who are underwater and we estimate that a further 5 percent appreciation in home values across the U.S. would reduce the number of owners with negative equity by about one million.”
“The CoreLogic Home Price Index for the U.S. was up 2.5 percent during the first quarter of 2015, which has improved the equity position of homeowners,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “About 90 percent of homeowners now have housing equity and, as a result, have experienced an increase in wealth, which can spur additional consumption and investment expenditures. The remaining 10 percent of owners with negative equity will find their home value rising while they continue to pay down principal on their amortizing mortgage loan.”
The state with the highest percentage of residential mortgages in positive equity in Q1 was Texas at 97.7 percent.
