Homeowners are getting back on their feet again, with 2.5 million borrowers moving out of a negative-equity position. Mortgage lenders also improved their position, with the average loan-to-value ratio dropping by nearly 5 percentage points.
The average LTV ratio for all financed properties in the United States was 62.5 percent in the second quarter.
Equity improved from the first quarter, when the average LTV ratio improved to 67.2 percent, and the second quarter of last year, when the ratio was 69.6 percent.
CoreLogic released the statistics Tuesday.
New York’s 47.7 percent LTV was lower than any other state. Close behind was Hawaii’s 49.0 percent.
Next was Washington, D.C.’s, 52.3 percent, then Montana’s 56.1 percent and Massachusetts’ 56.4 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum was Nevada, where the average LTV ratio was 85.0 percent.
The second-worst LTV was 78.0 percent in Louisiana. After that was 75.0 percent in Mississippi, 74.8 percent in Florida and 73.7 percent in Arizona.
As of the second quarter, 7.1 million properties had loan-to-value ratios in excess of 100 percent. That worked out to 14.5 percent of all mortgaged properties.
In the prior quarter, a revised 9.6 million borrowers, or 19.7 percent of all financed properties, were upside-down, while the share was 22.3 percent in the second-quarter 2012.
Still, there were 41.5 million financed homes with positive equity as of June 30, including 2.5 million residential properties that returned to positive equity.
“The bulk of home equity for mortgaged properties is concentrated at the high end of the housing market,” the report stated. “For example, 91 percent of homes valued at greater than $200,000 have equity compared with 80 percent of homes valued at less than $200,000.”
In all, mortgages with LTV ratios of more than 100 percent exceeded the value of the underlying properties by an aggregate of $428 billion as of June 30. Three months earlier, the deficit was $576 billion, while it stood at $689 billion a year earlier.
“Price appreciation obviously had a positive impact on home equity over the first half of 2013, especially the second quarter,” CoreLogic Chief Executive Officer Anand Nallathambi stated in the report.
The latest number included $211 billion on the 2.8 million first liens with home-equity loans behind them.
With 36.4 percent of all properties underwater, Nevada had the worst rate of any state.
Nearly a third of Florida properties had negative equity. Hurting the Sunshine State was the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Statistical Area, where the underwater share was 36.5 percent — the worst in the country — and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA, which was No. 2 with more than a third of mortgages being in excess of 100 percent LTV.
Just under a quarter of Arizona properties had LTV ratios above 100 percent, and just over a quarter of loans in the Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale MSA were in a negative-equity position — the third-worst MSA.
Michigan’s 22.5 percent negative-equity rate was the fourth-worst state in the county. The fifth-worst MSA in country — Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills — is located in Michigan and had a 24.3 percent negative-equity rate.
In Georgia, more than a fifth of mortgages exceeded the value of the security — landing it in the No. 5 spot.
