Negative Equity

  Appreciating home values in the bottom third of the market helped pull more homeowners out of negative equity in the second quarter of 2015, but condos were more likely than houses to be underwater , according to the Zillow® Negative Equity Report. •             The U.S. rate of negative equity among mortgaged homeowners continued to drop in the second quarter ... Read More »

Not so long ago, when prices were plummeting and foreclosures pumped up the inventory counts with discounted values, homeowners and real estate professionals would have welcomed one of the chronic problems plaguing markets today; inventories so low that they inflate prices and keep move up buyers in homes they want to leave. The question everyone is asking: “What’s happened to ... Read More »

The difficulties homeowners face today obtaining accurate valuations of their homes, and in turn, the equity they have in it, may be freezing many out of refinancing or selling because they error on the side of caution and make estimates that are too conservative. A new analysis of Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey by two economists at the University of ... Read More »

Closing rates for conventional and FHA refinancings improved dramatically in April, while lending standards for purchase loans hardly burned and remained at virtually the same levels as three years ago despite housing industry complaints that overly restrictive underwriting rules are crippling sales to first-time buyers. The refinancing approval rate for all mortgage types jumped to 64 percent in April, up ... Read More »

One reason inventories for first-time buyers are chronically depleted is that lower priced homes continue to bear a more of the brunt of negative equity that those priced higher. A new report from Black Knight found that in March the number of underwater borrowers decreased by 1.6 million from this time last year and that the negative equity population has ... Read More »

Perhaps you’ve seen the headlines crafted to conjure up fearful memories of Alt-A and Option ARM loan defaults during the depths of the housing depression. Tidal wave of HELOC resets about to hit! HELOC Resets Will Undermine Any Housing Recovery. Boom-Era HELOC Resets Raise Concerns. Not to worry.  Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) resets are not going to cripple the housing ... Read More »

  First came the news that last fall saw an uptick in negative equity.  Now Zillow has found that most low end homes, including those already underwater, are losing value, not gaining as one would expect with the tight supplies of entry-level properties.  Suddenly negative equity is no longer yesterday’s news.  Its a huge threat to the entry point for ... Read More »

For the first time in years, the number of homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth actually increased on a quarterly basis rising 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, a sign of the weakness of the recovery in the waning months of 2014. Despite a strengthening economy and tight mortgage underwriting standards ... Read More »

  What’s really happening with homes in the bottom price tiers? These are the most important homes in the entire real estate economy.  They are where the housing ladder begins: they are then entry point for new buyers, the starter homes that MUST be available and affordable for Millennials if the housing economy is to ever function again as it ... Read More »

Almost 273,000 U.S. homes returned to positive equity in the third quarter of 2014, bringing the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity to approximately 44.6 million, or 90 percent of all mortgaged properties, according to the latest report from CoreLogic. Borrower equity increased year over year by approximately $800 billion in Q3 2014. The CoreLogic analysis indicates that approximately ... Read More »