The amount of Connecticut homeowners with negative equity exceeds the national average, but the Nutmeg State isn’t the worst state in New England.
According to CoreLogic, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, 9.3 percent of Connecticut’s 842,809 mortgages were deemed as having negative equity. The national average is 8.1 percent. The state’s rate of near negative equity mortgages was 2.7 percent compared to 2.2 percent nationally.
Negative equity, often referred to as “underwater” or “upside down,” applies to borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Negative equity can occur because of a decline in home value, an increase in mortgage debt or a combination of both.
Nationally, the total number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity stood at 4.1 million, or 8.1 percent, in the third quarter of 2015. That was down 4.7 percent quarter over quarter from 4.3 million homes, or 8.7 percent, compared with the second quarter of 2015 and down 20.7 percent year over year from 5.2 million homes, or 10.4 percent, compared with the same time period in 2014.
Rhode Island was the worst New England state, according to CoreLogic. It’s negative equity rate was 12.3 percent.
