CoreLogic Reports Nearly 9 Million Borrowers Have Regained Equity Since the Height of the Crisis in 2011

June 08, 2017, Irvine, Calif. – CoreLogic®, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released its Q1 2017 home equity analysis which shows U.S. homeowners with mortgages (roughly 63 percent of all homeowners) have seen their equity increase by a total of $766.4 billion since Q1 2016, an increase of 11.2 percent. Additionally, the average homeowner gained about $13,400 in equity between Q1 2016 and Q1 2017.

In Q1 2017, the total number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity decreased 3 percent from Q4 2016* to 3.1 million homes, or 6.1 percent of all mortgaged properties. Compared to Q1 2016, negative equity decreased 24 percent from 4.1 million homes, or 8.1 percent of all mortgaged properties.

"One million borrowers achieved positive equity over the last year, which means mortgage risk continues to steadily decline as a result of increasing home prices," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Pockets of concern remain with markets such as Miami, Las Vegas and Chicago, which are the top three for negative equity among large metros, with each recording a negative equity share at least twice or more the national average."

Negative equity, often referred to as being "underwater" or "upside down," applies to borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Negative equity can occur because of a decline in home value, an increase in mortgage debt or both.

Negative equity peaked at 26 percent of mortgaged residential properties in Q4 2009 based on CoreLogic equity data analysis, which began in Q3 2009.

The national aggregate value of negative equity was approximately $283 billion at the end of Q1 2017, down quarter over quarter by approximately $2.6 billion, or 0.9 percent, from $285.5 billion in Q4 2016 and down year over year by approximately $21.5 billion, or 7.1 percent, from $304.5 billion in Q1 2016.

"Homeowner equity increased by over $750 billion during the last year, the largest increase since mid-2014," said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "The rising cushion of home equity is one of the main drivers of improved mortgage performance. It also supports consumer balance sheets, spending and the broader economy."

Highlights as of Q1 2017:

• Texas had the highest percentage of homes with positive equity at 98.4 percent, followed by Utah (98.2 percent), Washington (98.2 percent), Hawaii (98.1 percent) and Colorado (98 percent).
• On average, homeowner equity increased about $13,400 from Q1 2016 to Q1 2017 (for mortgaged properties). Washington had the highest year-over-year average increase at $37,900, while Alaska experienced a small decline.
• Nevada had the highest percentage of homes with negative equity at 12.4 percent, followed by Florida (11.1 percent), Illinois (10.5 percent), New Jersey (10.2 percent) and Connecticut (9.9 percent). These top five states combined account for 32.6 percent of outstanding mortgages in the U.S.
• Of the 10 largest metropolitan areas by population, San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA had the highest percentage of mortgaged properties in a positive equity position at 99.4 percent, followed by Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO (98.6 percent), Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (98.5 percent), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA (97.3 percent) and Boston, MA (95.6 percent).
• Of the same 10 largest metropolitan areas, Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL had the highest percentage of mortgaged properties in negative equity at 15.7 percent, followed by Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV (14.2 percent), Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, IL (12 percent), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (8 percent) and New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ (5.3 percent).

*Q4 2016 data was revised. Revisions with public records data are standard, and to ensure accuracy, CoreLogic incorporates the newly released public data to provide updated results.

For ongoing housing trends and data, visit the CoreLogic Insights Blog.

Methodology

The amount of equity for each property is determined by comparing the estimated current value of the property against the mortgage debt outstanding (MDO). If the MDO is greater than the estimated value, then the property is determined to be in a negative equity position. If the estimated value is greater than the MDO, then the property is determined to be in a positive equity position. The data is first generated at the property level and aggregated to higher levels of geography. CoreLogic data includes more than 50 million properties with a mortgage, which accounts for more than 95 percent of all mortgages in the U.S. CoreLogic uses public record data as the source of the MDO, which includes both first-mortgage liens and second liens, and is adjusted for amortization and home equity utilization in order to capture the true level of MDO for each property. The calculations are not based on sampling, but rather on the full data set to avoid potential adverse selection due to sampling. The current value of the property is estimated using a suite of proprietary CoreLogic valuation techniques, including valuation models and the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI). In August 2016, the CoreLogic HPI was enhanced to include nearly one million additional repeat sales records from proprietary data sources that provide greater coverage in home price changes nationwide. The increased coverage is particularly useful in 14 non-disclosure states. Additionally, a new modeling methodology has been added to the HPI to weight outlier pairs, ensuring increased consistency and reducing month-over-month revisions. The use of the enhanced CoreLogic HPI was implemented with the Q2 2016 Equity report. Only data for mortgaged residential properties that have a current estimated value are included. There are several states or jurisdictions where the public record, current value or mortgage data coverage is thin and have been excluded from the analysis. These instances account for fewer than 5 percent of the total U.S. population.

About CoreLogic

CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) is a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider. The company's combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years, providing detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets CoreLogic serves include real estate and mortgage finance, insurance, capital markets, and the public sector. CoreLogic delivers value to clients through unique data, analytics, workflow technology, advisory and managed services. Clients rely on CoreLogic to help identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., CoreLogic operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com.