Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
About 312,000 residential properties regained equity in the first quarter of this year, raising the total of residential properties with equity to more than 43 million, CoreLogic reported Thursday in its annual home equity report.
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Still, as of the first quarter, about 6.3 million homes – or 12.7 percent – have negative equity compared to 6.6 million or 13.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Negative equity refers to borrowers who owe more on their mortgage than their homes are currently worth.
What’s more, of the 43 million residential properties who do have equity, about 10 million have less than 20 percent equity, an at-risk position to be in if home prices were to fall, according to CoreLogic’s report. About 20.6 percent of all residential properties are in what’s considered such an “under-equitied” position.
“Despite the massive improvement in prices and reduction in negative equity over the last few years, many borrowers still lack sufficient equity to move and purchase a home,” says Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s deputy chief economist. “One in five borrowers have less than 10 percent equity in their property, which is not enough to cover the down payment and additional costs associated with a conventional mortgage.”
But CoreLogic is projecting an additional rise in home prices of 5 percent over the next 12 months which is expected to lift another 1.2 million properties “out of the negative equity trap,” says Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.
CoreLogic’s report shows the following states have the highest percentage of all mortgaged properties in negative equity:
