One In 10 U.S. Properties Seriously Underwater In Q2 2018

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's premier property database, today released its Q2 2018 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that in the second quarter of 2018, more than 5.5 million U.S. properties were seriously underwater — where the combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property was at least 25 percent higher than the property's estimated market value — representing 10.1 percent of all U.S. properties with a mortgage.

The report also shows that more than 13.6 million U.S. properties in Q2 2018 were equity rich — where the combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property was 50 percent or less of the property's estimated market value — representing 24.5 percent of all U.S. properties with a mortgage.

"The share of seriously underwater properties has dropped well below 10 percent in bellwether housing markets such as California, Washington, Texas, Colorado and New York, but the underwater rate remains stubbornly high in markets where price appreciation has not been as strong during the housing recovery of the last six years," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president with ATTOM Data Solutions. "Nationwide the number of equity rich homeowners is more than twice the number of seriously underwater homeowners, but the gap between home equity haves and have-nots persists because home price appreciation is certainly not uniform across local markets or even within local markets."

Q2 2018 U.S. Home Equity Heat Map

Highest seriously underwater share in Louisiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio
States with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were Louisiana (21.7 percent); Illinois (18.5 percent); Missouri (17.8 percent); Mississippi (16.8 percent); and Ohio (16.2 percent).

Among 97 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report, those with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were Baton Rouge, Louisiana (21.0 percent); Toledo, Ohio (20.0 percent); Scranton, Pennsylvania (19.6 percent); Youngstown, Ohio (19.3 percent); and New Orleans, Louisiana (18.9 percent).

65 zip codes where more than half of all properties are seriously underwater
Among 7,290 U.S. zip codes with at least 2,500 properties with loans, there were 65 zip codes where more than half of all properties with a mortgage were seriously underwater, including zip codes in Springfield, Missouri; Columbia, Missouri; Northern New Jersey; Detroit; St. Louis; and Memphis.

The top five zip codes with the highest share of seriously underwater properties were 65809 in Springfield, Missouri (81.0 percent) followed by four zip codes in the greater Chicago area: 60134 in Geneva, Illinois (76.0 percent); 60124 in Elgin, Illinois (75.5 percent); 60175 in Saint Charles, Illinois (73.6 percent); and 60554 in Sugar Grove, Illinois (71.9 percent).

Q2 2018 Underwater Properties by Zip Code

Highest equity rich share in California, Hawaii, Washington, New York, Oregon
States with the highest share of equity rich properties were California (43.5 percent); Hawaii (38.3 percent); Washington (34.5 percent); New York (33.2 percent); and Oregon (32.8 percent).

Among 97 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report, those with the highest share of equity rich properties were San Jose, California (71.9 percent); San Francisco, California (60.8 percent); Los Angeles, California (47.9 percent); Seattle, Washington (41.1 percent); and San Diego, California (40.0 percent).

437 zip codes where more than half of all properties are equity rich
Among 7,290 U.S. zip codes with at least 2,500 properties with loans, there were 437 zip codes where more than half of all properties with a mortgage were equity rich, including zip codes in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Denver.

The top five zip codes with the highest share of equity rich properties were all in the California Bay area: 94116 in San Francisco (85.9 percent equity rich); 94086 in Sunnyvale (84.3 percent equity rich); 94040 in Mountain View (84.3 percent equity rich); 94087 in Sunnyvale (84.3 percent equity rich); and 94122 in San Francisco (84.2 percent equity rich).

Q2 2018 Equity Rich Properties by Zip

Report methodology
The ATTOM Data Solutions U.S. Home Equity & Underwater report provides counts of properties based on several categories of equity — or loan to value (LTV) — at the state, metro,  county and zip code level, along with the percentage of total properties with a mortgage that each equity category represents. The equity/LTV is calculated based on record-level loan model estimating position and balance of loans secured by a property and a record-level automated valuation model (AVM) derived from publicly recorded mortgage and deed of trust data collected and licensed by ATTOM Data Solutions nationwide for more than 150 million U.S. properties.

Definitions
Seriously underwater: Loan to value ratio of 125 percent or above, meaning the property owner owed at least 25 percent more than the estimated market value of the property.

Equity rich: Loan to value ratio of 50 percent or lower, meaning the property owner had at least 50 percent equity.  

About ATTOM Data Solutions
ATTOM Data Solutions provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation's population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes and enhances the data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 9TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licenses, APIs, market trends, marketing lists, match & append and more.

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SOURCE ATTOM Data Solutions