St Casimirs Mortgage Minute

More Homeowners Rise From Underwater

In this year's third quarter, almost 1 million fewer homeowners were underwater versus the prior three months. However, some of the areas hardest hit by the housing boom gone bust continue to have a tough go of it. This summer, Zillow says 13.4 percent of U.S. homeowners were underwater, a decrease from 16.9 percent a year earlier. Las Vegas -- which has had the highest percentage of homeowners underwater for more than four years running -- remained on top with a little more than 22 percent of homeowners still owing more than their residences are worth. Not far behind were Chicago (20.6 percent) and Atlanta (18.6 percent). Meanwhile, some of the worst-hit cities logged the biggest improvements. In Atlanta, for example, the share of underwater homeowners fell 8.5 percentage points from the third quarter of 2014. Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell remarks, "In these markets, there are just so many people that are underwater that if you're blanketing them with home-value appreciation they are much more likely to see larger drops in that negative equity rate."

From "More Homeowners Rise From Underwater"
Wall Street Journal (12/04/15) P. A3 Kusisto, Laura