Home prices jumped 10 percent in the first quarter but one-quarter of homeowners are still under water on their mortgages.
For individuals counting on the equity in their homes to get them through retirement, the number of mortgage holders who are under water continues to be a negative sign, particularly for those closest to retirement.
New research from Zillow.com found that 25.4 percent of homeowners nationwide are under water on their mortgages, meaning they owe more on their homes than the house is worth. An additional 18.2 percent of homeowners with mortgages, while not under water, don't have enough equity in their homes to be able to move.
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If the two figures are combined, 43.6 percent of homeowners had an effective negative equity rate at the end of the first quarter, with 22.3 million homeowners either under water or unable to move because they have less than 20 percent home equity.
Among the 30 largest metropolitan areas covered by Zillow, Las Vegas had the highest negative equity at 71.5 percent, followed by Atlanta with 64.1 percent and Riverside, Calif., with 59.7 percent.
The United States as a whole had a 25.4 percent negative equity rate. That figure jumps to 43.6 percent if homeowners with less than 20 percent equity in their homes are included.
Zillow predicted that the negative equity rate among all homeowners with a mortgage will fall to 23.5 percent by the first quarter of 2014, lifting more than 1.4 million additional homeowners into positive equity territory.
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