Where does the United States stand with regard to Positive Equity and Negative Equity?

I read an interesting article in the Los Angeles times recently concerning positive and negative equity across the country.  Here is a recap:

The real estate market peaked in 2005-2006.  Although the sales activity had definitely cooled in the last half of 2005, industry experts and homeowners preferred to hold onto the notion that the "lull" in the market was just temporary.  History, however, has shown us otherwise.

It is now the first half of 2014 and the real estate market continues to inch toward the recovery of 2005-2006 values. Nearly 4 million USA homeowners climbed out of negative equity on their homes to positve equity last year.  There is steady improvement year by year!

Positive equity is defined as having a home value worth more than the debt on the property.  Likewise, negative equity is defined as having more debt on the property than the home is worth.  Negative equity situations hurt the homeowner and the economy.  The homeowner is typically unable to refinance to more affordable interest rates and unable to sell either unless they have the money to bring to the table to pay off the mortgage debt.

The most ideal situation is to have 20% equity or greater.  The homeowner with at least 20% equity will be able to refinance, move, buy other properties and contribute to the overall economic growth of the country.

The states with the best positive equity are:

Texas -3.9%
Alaska 4.2%
New York 6.3%
Oklahoma 6.4%
District of Columbia 6.5%

The states with the highest % of underwater mortgages (Debt is more than home is worth) are:

Nevada- 30.4%
Florida- 28.1%
Arizona- 21.5%

Other states with high underwater percentages are:

California- 12.6%
Maryland-16.2%
Ohio- 19%
Illinois- 18.7%
Rhode Island-81.3%
Michigan-18%

2014 is set to be another recovery year for the real estate industry.  Hopefully, this time next year will show vast improvement once again from the above figures.

If you would like to buy or sell a home call me today.  I will treat your transaction as if it were my own.

Thank you for visiting my blog,

                                                                   Carla Brooks
                                                                  703-577-4960
                                                                brkslong@aol.com

PS the photos in this blog are from here