“Underwater” Home Decline

Nine percent of all Inland Empire residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity during the second quarter, a year-over-year drop of 3.2 percent, according to data released Thursday.

Nationwide, the number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity – meaning more is owed on the property than the property is worth – was 7.1 percent during the second quarter, a decline of 19 percent from the second quarter of 2015, Irvine-based CoreLogic reported.

An estimated 548,000 U.S. homeowners regained equity during the second quarter compared with the first three months of 2015, bringing to 92.9 percent the number of positive equity homes, or approximately 47.2 million properties.

Home equity throughout the United States grew by $646 billion during the second quarter, a year-over-year increase of 9.9 percent, CoreLogic reported.