How many people are underwater with their homes?

In addition to low housing inventory, the unprecedented amount of monetary easing from the Federal Reserve has acted like a life preserver to the real estate market. However, many Americans still find themselves underwater or anchored to their current homes.

In the third-quarter of 2013, the national negative equity rate declined at its fastest pace on record to 21 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, according to Zillow’s latest Negative Equity Report. 

 In comparison, 23.8 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were underwater in the previous quarter. The peak was made in the first quarter of 2012 at 31.4 percent.

The national negative equity rate has now declined for six consecutive quarters, and fell below 25 percent earlier this year for the first time since Zillow began using its current methodology in 2011. In fact, around 1.4 million American homeowners were freed from negative equity during the third quarter. While this is a significant improvement, many people are still trapped in their homes.

Across the nation, there are approximately 10.8 million homeowners who still owe more than their homes are currently worth. Zillow also finds that the effective negative equity rate — homeowners with less than 20 percent home equity — is at 39.2 percent. Meanwhile, roughly one in seven homeowners owe more than double what their home is worth.   

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