by Calculated Risk on 3/06/2014 09:51:00 AM

From CoreLogic: CoreLogic reports 4 Million Residential Properties Returned to Positive Equity in 2013

CoreLogic ... today released new analysis showing 4 million homes returned to positive equity in 2013, bringing the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity to 42.7 million. The CoreLogic analysis indicates that nearly 6.5 million homes, or 13.3 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, were still in negative equity at the end of 2013. Due to a small slowdown in the quarterly growth rate of the Home Price Index, the negative equity share was virtually unchanged from the end of the third quarter of 2013.

... Of the 42.7 million residential properties with positive equity, 10 million have less than 20-percent equity. Borrowers with less than 20-percent equity, referred to as “under-equitied,” may have a more difficult time obtaining new financing for their homes due to underwriting constraints. Under-equitied mortgages accounted for 21.1 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide in 2013, with more than 1.6 million residential properties at less than 5-percent equity, referred to as near-negative equity. Properties that are near-negative equity are considered at risk if home prices fall. ...

“The plight of the underwater borrower has improved dramatically since negative equity peaked in December 2009 when more than 12 million mortgaged homeowners were underwater,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Over the past four years, more than 5.5 million homeowners have regained equity, reducing their risk of foreclosure and unlocking pent-up supply in the housing market.”
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the break down of negative equity by state. Note: Data not available for some states. From CoreLogic:

"Nevada had the highest percentage of mortgaged properties in negative equity at 30.4 percent, followed by Florida (28.1 percent), Arizona (21.5 percent), Ohio (19.0 percent) and Illinois (18.7 percent). These top five states combined account for 36.9 percent of negative equity in the United States."

Note: The share of negative equity is still very high in Nevada and Florida, but down significantly from a year ago (Q4 2012) when the negative equity share in Nevada was at 52.4 percent, and at 40.2 percent in Florida.

The second graph shows the distribution of home equity in Q4 compared to Q3. Close to 5% of residential properties have 25% or more negative equity, down slightly from Q3, and down from around 6% in Q2 and 8% in Q1.

In Q4 2012, there were 10.4 million properties with negative equity - now there are 6.5 million.  A significant change.