Nearly 255,000 mortgaged properties in the United States regained equity during the first quarter of this year, according to a report released Tuesday.
Nationwide, the number of mortgaged residential properties at the end of the first quarter of this year totaled 44.9 million, or roughly 90 percent of all mortgaged properties, according to data released by CoreLogic in Irvine.
About 5.2 million mortgaged properties – 10.2 percent of the total mortgaged properties in the United States – had no equity at the end of the first quarter. That figure was essentially unchanged compared with the first quarter of 2014.
Negative equity, better known as “upside down” or “underwater,” means borrowers who owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth. The number of underwater homes in the U.S. dropped by 1.2 million, or 91.4 percent, year-over-year during the first quarter of 2015, CoreLogic stated.