Black Knight Financial Services released its June 2015 Mortgage Monitor today, and the report shows some interesting results relative to the dropping number of U.S. homeowners who have negative equity in their homes. Here’s the article from DS News.
The number of borrowers who have negative equity (“underwater” on their mortgages), declined by approximately one million (a 26% drop) in the five-month period from January 1, 2015, until the end of May, according to Black Knight Financial Services’ June 2015 Mortgage Monitor released Monday.
Though three million borrowers nationwide remain underwater, representing about 6.1% of the active mortgage universe, the number of underwater borrowers is down about 79% from the peak of 15 million in 2010, according to Black Knight.
The 26% decline for the first five months of 2015 outpaced the decline rate for the same period in 2014, which was 20%, Black Knight reported.
Approximately 158,000 of the one million fewer underwater borrowers since the start of 2015 were located in California, making it the state with the largest reduction in underwater borrower volume (34%) for that period, according to Black Knight. California’s home price appreciation since December (6.3%) has been about 50% higher than the national average of 4.1%.
The state that experienced the second-largest decline in underwater borrower volume for the first five months of 2015 was Florida.
Together, the top five states accounted for close to half of the overall national reduction of one million underwater borrowers from the start of 2015 until the end of May.
