20% us mortgages in negative territory

One in five of all mortgages in the USA, representing around 8.3 million home loans, were in negative equity at the end of 2008, according to a report compiled by Loan Performance, a firm that monitors mortgage data...

Just over 2.2 million, or 5.3 per cent, of all mortgaged homes in USA are considered to be in acute negative equity with loan-to-values of at least 125 per cent of the property price.

Owners of property in California have the highest negative equity (1.9 million), followed by Florida (1.3 million), Texas (498,000), Nevada (170,000), Michigan (128,000) and Arizona (122,000).

A separate study conducted by Zillow Real Estate suggests that that the number of homeowners in negative equity at the end of 2008 could be as high as 11.7 million, due to plummeting US property values.

Source: www.homesoverseas.co.uk/news