The number of U.S. properties on which the combined loan amount was at least 25 percent higher than the property’s estimated market value dropped to its lowest number in more than two years, according to ATTOM Data Solutions.
ATTOM’s Q3 2017 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report found there were 4.6 million properties that were seriously underwater at the end of the quarter, down 9.5 percent from the previous quarter and down 10.8 percent from 2016’s third quarter.
“Accelerating home price appreciation this year is increasing the velocity at which seriously underwater homeowners are recovering home equity lost during the Great Recession,” ATTOM Data Solutions Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said in a release. “Median home prices nationwide are up 9.4 percent so far in 2017, the fastest pace of appreciation through the first three quarters of a year since 2013. Continued home price appreciation is also helping to grow the number of equity rich homeowners across the country compared to a year ago.”
The report found that 26 percent of U.S. properties (14 million) were equity rich, where the combined loan amount secured by the property was 50 percent or less of the estimated market value of the property. ATTOM said 23.4 percent of U.S. properties were equity rich at the end of 2016’s third quarter.
According to the report, the states with the highest share of equity rich properties were Hawaii (41.9 percent); California (41.4 percent); New York (35.7 percent); Oregon (34.0 percent); and Washington (33.6 percent).
The report identified the metropolitan areas with the highest share of equity rich properties as San Jose, Calif. (61.0 percent); San Francisco (56.4 percent); Los Angeles (45.3 percent); Honolulu (43.9 percent); and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif. (38.7 percent).
Other metropolitan areas where at least 35 percent of properties were equity rich were Seattle (38.7 percent); San Diego (38.3 percent); Portland, Ore. (36.7 percent); Austin, Texas (35.8 percent); and Stockton, Calif. (35.2 percent).
States with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were Louisiana (19.2 percent); Iowa (14.2 percent); Pennsylvania (14.0 percent); Mississippi (13.8 percent); and Alabama (13.7 percent), the report found.
ATTOM said the metropolitan areas with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were Baton Rouge, La. (20.5 percent); Scranton, Pa. (19.5 percent); Youngstown, Ohio (18.2 percent); New Orleans (17.4 percent); and Dayton, Ohio (16.4 percent).