CL: Negative Equity Improves Slightly, But HELOCs a Growing Problem

Roughly 22.7% of all residential properties encumbered with a mortgage had negative equity at March 31, a slight improvement over yearend when the reading was 23.1%, according to new figures released by CoreLogic.

But mortgage bankers and realtors shouldn’t be celebrating quite yet. In a report released Tuesday morning the analytics firm noted that the better showing is primarily due to small improvements in the hardest hit states – Nevada, Arizona and Florida – while a majority of states either remained unchanged or had minor increases in “underwater” loans.