ATTOM Data Solutions, the new parent company of RealtyTrac, released its Q2 2016 U.S. Home Equity and Underwater Report, which shows 6.7 million seriously underwater properties representing 11.9 percent of all U.S. properties with a mortgage as of the end of the second quarter 2016 — down from 12 percent in the previous quarter and down from 13.3 percent in Q2 2015.
For the report, ATTOM analyzed recorded mortgage and deed of trust data from more than 1,400 U.S. counties accounting for 88 percent of the U.S. population, along with automated valuation models (AVMs) for more than 56 million properties with mortgages in those counties.
“Rising home prices are lifting all home equity boats, bailing out seriously underwater homeowners and enriching homeowners who already have positive equity,” ATTOM Data Solutions Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said in a press release. “Nationwide, home prices reached a new all-time high in June on the heels of 52 consecutive months of annual increases. While that national trend is consistent in most markets across the country, there are still some local markets and sub-markets that have been largely left behind by the housing recovery and which still have a high percentage of underwater homeowners.”
The number of seriously underwater properties (those with an LTV of 125 percent or more) decreased by 37,235 compared with the first quarter and by 776,958 compared with a year ago. Since the peak of 12.8 million in Q2 2012, the number of seriously underwater properties has decreased by more than 6.1 million.
There were 12.4 million equity rich properties (LTV of 50 percent or less) representing 22.1 percent of all U.S. properties with a mortgage at the end of Q2 2016 — up from 22 percent in the previous quarter and 19.6 percent in Q2 2015. The number of equity rich properties increased by 47,694 compared with the previous quarter and by more than 1.4 million compared with a year ago.