Where Underwater Mortgages Live

By Kellyn Brown, 11-24-09

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating story on the high number of Americans (23 percent) who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Nevada is the worst, where 65 percent of homeowners have negative equity according to data from First American CoreLogic. In Montana, 6.4 percent of homeowners have “underwater mortgages” – further proof that while the Real Estate bubble burst here, it wasn’t as big as in most other states. From the WSJ:

Home prices have fallen so far that 5.3 million U.S. households are tied to mortgages that are at least 20% higher than their home's value, the First American report said. More than 520,000 of these borrowers have received a notice of default, according to First American.

Most U.S. homeowners still have some equity, and nearly 24 million owner-occupied homes don't have any mortgage, according to the Census Bureau.

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