Three States Account for Nearly One-Third of the Country’s Negative Equity

Three states accounted for nearly one-third of the nation's negative equity in single-family residential mortgages, according to data released this week by CoreLogic.

CoreLogic's Equity Report for the Second Quarter of 2015 found that Nevada, Florida, and Arizona combined accounted for about 31.7 percent of the nation's negative equity. This means that out of the 4.4 million mortgaged properties nationwide with negative equity as of the end of Q2, about 1.39 million of them were located in those three states.

Nevada had the highest share of residential properties in negative equity (commonly referred to as "underwater" or "upside down") in Q2 with 20.6 percent, followed by Florida, Arizona, Rhode Island, and Illinois, according to CoreLogic. The state with the highest percentage of homes with equity as of the end of Q2 was Colorado at 96.7 percent, followed by Montana, Hawaii, Alaska, and Texas.

Only 14 states had a higher negative equity share than the national average in Q2, which was 8.7 percent, according to CoreLogic. The nationwide equity share for Q2 was 91.3 percent.

Out of the top five metros (taken from the largest 25 metros in the nation) with the highest share of homes with equity, two of them were located in Texas. The metro area with the highest share of homes with equity was Houston, with 98.1 percent, followed by Portland, Anaheim, Dallas, and Denver. The metro area with the highest share of residential homes with negative equity was Tampa, with 20.2 percent, followed by Phoenix, Chicago, Riverside, and Warren (Michigan), according to CoreLogic.

The 4.4 million properties with negative equity represented about 10.9 percent of all residential mortgages nationwide (50.2 million), according to CoreLogic. It was a decline of about 1 million properties from the same quarter in 2014.