12% of O.C. homeowners underwater

One in eight of Orange County single-family homeowners who have a mortgage owed more than their home was worth in the quarter that ended on June 30, online real estate website Zillow.com reports.

That’s 12.08% of O.C. homeowners still making house payments — tens of thousands of households at a minimum given that there are over 470,000 homes of all types (including condos) that have a mortgage.

Still, that’s an improvement:

• Zillow reported that 14.32% of of all single-family homes with mortgages were “under water” or had “negative equity” in the first quarter.
• The quarter before that — Q4 2009 — 14.44% were under water.
• At one point, four out of every 10 homes bought during the housing boom was under water.
• Nationwide, 21.5% of U.S. single-family homeowners with a loan was under water in the second quarter. That’s down from 23.3% in the first quarter and 23% a year earlier.
• In the Los Angeles region (which includes Orange County), 16.9% of mortgage-paying house owners were underwater, which tied for 82nd out of 125 metro areas.

Worst in the nation:

• Don’t even look at these next two numbers if you own homes in Las Vegas or Phoenix. They had the nation’s highest negative equity rates, with (DON’T LOOK!) 73.4% and 66.8% of the house owners under water, respectively. Those are the worst two metro areas in the nation.
• Eight other metro areas had underwater rates of 50% or greater: Orlando (64.6%); Reno (61.9%); El Centro (57.5%); Modesto (57.5%); Lakeland, Fla. (55.7%); Port S. Lucie, Fla. (55%); Stockton (53.5%); and Fort Myers, Fla. (51.9%)

Contact www.california-shortsale.com if you find yourself in this scenario.

Post by California Short Sale Solutions from California Short Sale Solutions