Increasingly, more mortgage borrowers are rising to the water’s surface instead of being underwater. According to RealtyTrac, 19 percent of all homes with mortgages were “deeply underwater,” meaning they owed at least 25 percent more on their mortgages than their homes are worth in December, a total of 9.3 million properties. That’s a drop from the 10.9 million properties in the same position last January, accounting for 26 percent of all homes with mortgages. The increase of nearly 14 percent in home prices year-over-year through October has added thousands of dollars to the average value of a U. S. Home, as CNNMoney informs MHProNews. However, Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac says the danger still has not ended for many people. “There are still millions of homeowners who are in such a deep hole that it will take years for them to regain their equity. The longer these homeowners remain in a negative equity position, the more likely that foreclosure will become the path of least resistance for them,” he noted. The states with the highest percentages of “deeply underwater” homes include Nevada (38%), Florida (34%), Illinois (32%) and Michigan (31%).
