RealtyTrac today released its Year-End 2015 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report. The report found that at the end of 2015, seriously underwater properties were down 481,292 from 6.9 million in the third quarter and 616,189 from 7.1 million from a year prior.
- Closing out 2015, 6.4 million (6,436,381) U.S. homes were seriously underwater– about 25 percent were underwater– representing 11.5 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage
- There were 12.6 million (12,621,274) U.S. homes that were equity rich, or at least 50 percent equity. This represents 22.5 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage.
- At of the end of 2015, 49.7 percent of all homes in foreclosure had some equity, marking the highest percentage since Q3 2013– when RealtyTrac began tracking.
- This is up from 43.3 percent of all homes in foreclosure with equity at the end of the third quarter of 2015.
- At the end of 2014, 34.6 percent of homes were equity rich.
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In the Bay Area, 3.8 percent of foreclosed homes are seriously underwater, which is about 38,719 in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward MSA. RealtyTrac reported 487,984 foreclosures that are equity rich, or 47.6 percent.
In San Francisco County, RealtyTrac reported of the 378,186 properties, about 2.5 percent are seriously underwater.
On a state-wide basis, California had 33.3 percent of homes with equity and 7.8 percent of foreclosures are seriously underwater.