Fewer Underwater Homeowners in Maryland in Q1 2012 – CoreLogic Reports

CoreLogic reports that out of 1,353,647 mortgages in Maryland, 335,285 or 24.8% were negative equity mortgages or underwater in the first quarter of 2012. This data is an improvement from the 365,000 in the 4th quarter of 2011.

In the first quarter of 2012, therefore, one in four borrowers in Maryland owed more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Homeowners that are underwater are borrowers that owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Negative equity or underwater can happen due to the drop in home value and rise in mortgage debt or a combination of the two.

Maryland was ranked 9th among U.S. states with the highest levels of negative equity in the first quarter of this year.

In the national scale, according to Corelogic, 23.7% or 11.4 million of the 48 million mortgages in the US were negative equity mortgages in the first quarter of this year, a decrease from the 12.1 million or 25.2% underwater properties in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The 48 million properties with a mortgage accounts for over 85% percent of all mortgages in the U.S., Corelogic says.

Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in a statement, “In the first quarter of 2012, rebounding home prices, a healthier balance of real estate supply and demand, and a slowing share of distressed sales activity helped to reduce the negative equity share.”

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