More than 700,000 homeowners gained equity in their home values in the first quarter of 2012, according to data from CoreLogic's July Market Pulse Report.

"The number of U.S homeowners with negative equity declined by 6 percent in the first quarter, compared to the fourth quarter of 2011," reports Inman News.   "(This leaves) 23.7 percent of all homes with mortgages underwater. That's down from 25.2 percent in the fourth quarter."

Negative equity, or "being underwater" on your home is when the value of your home is less than the outstanding mortgage.  This is based on the fair market value of your home.

The lower end of the home price tier is rebounding at three times the rate of the upper end of homes.    Among homes under $200,000, 31 percent were upside down, compared with 15.9 percent among homes worth more than $200,000, according to the data.

"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," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, in a statement.

The Colorado market is improving with home values on the rise in Boulder, Denver and Ft. Collins metro areas.

Read the full story at Inman News

Posted in Headlines

Comment on this article

Name

Email
Your email address will not be displayed.

Site/Url
Your URL will be displayed.

Your vote

Poor Excellent

Comment text

Options

  Line breaks become <br />

  Remember me

  Allow users to contact you through a message form.

Captcha

Please enter the characters from the image above. (case insensitive)

Captcha code