Almost 9 million regained home equity since 2011

Home equity has jumped $766.4 billion (11%) in the year from the first quarter of 2016

Almost 9 million regained home equity since 2011
Home equity has jumped $766.4 billion (11%) in the year from the first quarter of 2016.

CoreLogic says that homeowners with mortgages have seen equity in their homes rise by an average $13,400 over that period, with almost 91,000 regaining equity in the first quarter of 2017.

Negative equity continued to decline with a 24% decrease in the first quarter of 2017 compared to a year earlier. That means a total of 3.1 million homes were underwater, 6.1% of all homes with a mortgage. The decline from the last quarter of 2016 was 3%.

“One million borrowers achieved positive equity over the last year, which means mortgage risk continues to steadily decline as a result of increasing home prices,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Pockets of concern remain with markets such as Miami, Las Vegas and Chicago, which are the top three for negative equity among large metros, with each recording a negative equity share at least twice or more the national average.”

Texas had the highest percentage of homes with positive equity at 98.4%, followed by Utah (98.2%), Washington (98.2%), Hawaii (98.1%) and Colorado (98%).