Underwater Mortgages Hit 11.3 Million – 24/7 Wall St.

Posted on February 24, 2010
Filed Under Critical Issues | 1 Comment

There is a reason that 702 American banks, nearly one in ten, were on the FDIC “problem list” as of the end of 2009. A large number of small and mid-sized banks are burdened with home and commercial mortgages that are in default and may even go into foreclosure.

New data from First American CoreLogic shows why the solution to the problem banks face is so difficult to find. Eleven million, three hundreds thousand homes had underwater mortgages as of the fourth quarter of last year. That number represent 24% of all residential homes loans in America.The mortgage numbers are much worse when homes with equity of less than 5% are included. First American reports that ”an additional 2.3 million mortgages were approaching negative equity at the end of last year, meaning they had less than five percent equity.” That means that three out of ten homes have virtually no financial value to their owners.

The pressure that the home value trouble puts on banks is clear. The aggregate dollar value of negative equity was $801 billion at the end of last year, up $55 billion from $746 billion in Q3 2009. People who believe there is no hope of their homes ever having any economic value are more likely to default on mortgages, especially in an environment where unemployed and under-employed people make up 17% of the total available workforce nationwide. Many homeowners are as concerned about their employment future as they are about the value of their houses.

Read Full Article Here: Underwater Mortgages Hit 11.3 Million – 24/7 Wall St..

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One Response to “Underwater Mortgages Hit 11.3 Million – 24/7 Wall St.”

  1. Hal (GT) on February 25th, 2010 8:48 am

    Add to this the data of commercial real estate markets and this year is not looking at all like a recovery to me. I wonder just how much more money will flow into it all from the gov before it all fails?

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