The country’s equity position worsened during the last three months of 2014, with more borrowers finding themselves upside-down.
The collective loan-to-value ratio for all U.S. mortgages was 59.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
That was worse than in the previous three-month period, when the average LTV ratio was 59.2 percent. The third-quarter ratio was originally reported at 58.9 percent.
But the nation’s equity position improved from the final quarter of 2013, when the average LTV ratio was 61.9 percent. The ratio was revised down from 61.8 percent originally reported.
The statistics were spelled out in CoreLogic Inc.’s Equity Report Fourth Quarter 2014.
Average LTV ratios were highest in
Nevada at 73.8 percent. Arkansas followed with 71.9 percent, then Nebraska’s 71.6 percent, Ohio’s 70.3 percent and Arizona’s 70.0 percent.
At 45.6 percent, Hawaii’s average LTV ratio was the lowest in the nation.
For all of last year, nearly 1.2 million borrowers moved from a negative-equity position to a positive one, leaving 5.4 million loans — or 10.8 percent of all financed properties — with LTV ratios in excess of 100 percent.
The share of negative equity borrowers was up from 10.4 percent three months earlier but below the 13.4 percent as of a year earlier.
Negative equity was worst in Nevada, where 24.2 percent of loans were upside-down. Florida followed with 23.2 percent of borrowers under water. After that was 18.7 percent in Arizona, 16.2 percent in Illinois and 15.8 percent in Rhode Island.
At the other end of the spectrum was
North Dakota, where just 3.8 percent of mortgages had LTV ratios in excess of 100 percent.
Among U.S. borrowers who were underwater, 2.1 million had home-equity loans.
The dollar amount of negative equity increased $7 billion from the third quarter to $349 billion. But a decline was noted from $403 billion in the fourth-quarter 2014.
CoreLogic noted that while 94 percent of homes valued at more than $200,000 had positive equity, just 84 percent of homes valued at less than $200,000 LTV ratios less than 100 percent.
The share of borrowers with positive equity whose homes were valued at $500,000 or more was around 97 percent, while it dropped to roughly 78 percent when home values didn’t exceed $100,000.
