Mortgage crisis continues to wane

An estimated 759,000 properties regained equity during the second quarter of this year, according to data released Tuesday.

Nearly 46 million mortgaged residential properties had equity as of June 30, about 91 percent of all such properties in the United States, Irvine-based CoreLogic reported in its quarterly equity analysis.

Approximately 4.4 million properties had negative equity at the end of the second quarter, or 8.7 percent of all mortgaged properties. By comparison, 5.1 million homes – 10.2 percent of all residential properties – had negative equity at the end of the first quarter of 2015, a drop of 1.5 percent.

Year-over-year, the number or homes with negative equity dropped by 1.1 million properties, or 19.4 percent, during the second quarter, CoreLogic stated.

“For much of the country the negative equity epidemic is lifting,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and chief executive officer of CoreLogic, in a statement. “The biggest reason for this improvement has been the relentless rise in home prices over the past three years, which reflects increasing money flows into housing and a lack of housing stock in many markets.’

Negative equity, often referred to as “upside down” or “underwater,” refers to borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth.