ATTOM’s just released Q3 2023 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, revealed that 47.4 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the U.S. were considered equity-rich in the third quarter. According to the report, that figure means that the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market values.
The latest home equity and underwater analysis compiled by ATTOM found that he portion of mortgaged homes that was equity-rich in Q3 2023 decreased from 49.2 percent in Q2 2023 – the largest quarterly decline since at least 2019. Also according to the report, the latest figure was also down from 48.5 percent in Q3 2022. The third-quarter report noted those declines happened despite home values rebounding recently from a fallback that had lasted from the middle of last year to the early part of this year.
ATTOM’s Q3 2023 home equity and underwater report also noted that while equity-rich levels dropped in the third quarter, the portion of mortgaged homes that were seriously underwater in the U.S. continued to improve.
According to the report, just 2.5 percent of all residential mortgages, or one in 40, were considered seriously underwater in Q3 2023, meaning they had a combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property of at least 25 percent more than the property’s estimated market value. The third-quarter report noted that the seriously underwater level dropped from one in 36 homes in Q2 2023 and from one in 35 in Q3 2022, to the lowest point in at least four years.
ATTOM’s latest report mentioned that the portion of mortgaged homes considered seriously underwater dropped, and remained historically low, in Q3 2023 in 43 states. According to the report, the biggest decreases were clustered in the Midwest and the Northeast, a region that has some of the nation’s higher levels of seriously underwater mortgages.
Those improvements were led by Indiana (share of mortgaged homes that were seriously underwater down from 8.1 percent in the second quarter of 2023 to 2.6 percent in the third quarter of 2023), Hawaii (down from 3.6 percent to 1.6 percent), South Dakota (down from 4 percent to 2.6 percent), Missouri (down from 4.8 percent to 3.9 percent) and Maine (down from 2.7 percent to 1.9 percent).
In this post, we dive deep into the data behind our Q3 2023 home equity and underwater report to uncover the top zip codes with the greatest quarterly declines or improvements in seriously underwater levels.
Among those larger zips with a population of 20,000 or more, those with the greatest declines or improvements in seriously underwater mortgages include: 60636 in Chicago, IL (share of mortgaged homes that were seriously underwater down from 43.7 percent in Q2 2023 to 17.9 percent in Q3 2023); 63118 in Saint Louis, MO (down from 33.3 percent to 15.9 percent); 60426 in Harvey, IL (down from 36.9 percent to 22.2 percent); 48224 in Detroit, MI (down from 26.9 percent to 13.9 percent); 44053 in Lorain, OH (down from 14.1 percent to 1.7 percent); 47362 in New Castle, IN (down from 15.6 percent to 4.0 percent); 46074 in Westfield, IN (down from 12.4 percent to 0.9 percent); 47302 in Muncie, IN (down from 17.7 percent to 6.2 percent); 63111 in Saint Louis, MO (down from 21.8 percent to 10.8 percent); and 47303 in Muncie, IN (down from 15.5 percent to 5.0 percent).
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