Almost one in three mortgaged homes in the U.S. — representing 15.2 million loans — now has negative equity, according to a new report issued by First American CoreLogic (FACL).
FACL says 32.2% of mortgages have negative equity (under water loans) compared to 32.5% in March. However, just because a loan is under water that doesn't necessarily mean it will go into default.
The improvement, the company said, reflects, "the recent flattening of monthly home price changes." The homes that are underwater have an aggregate property value of $3.4 trillion, which represents the total property value at risk of default.
California leads the nation in at-risk negative equity ($969 billion in home values), followed by Florida ($432 billion), New Jersey ($146 billion), Illinois ($146 billion) and Arizona ($140 billion).
