About 3,000 fewer metro Atlanta homeowners are underwater on their mortgages compared to the same time last year, according to CoreLogic, a California analysis firm.
Numbers released this week show that 34.5 percent of all local homeowners owe more on their loans than their homes are worth, or underwater. That’s down from 35.7 percent in 2010. The national average for underwater loans is 22.1 percent.
“Although slightly down, negative equity remains very high and renders many borrowers vulnerable when negative economic shocks occur, such as job loss or illness,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic chief economist.
Falling home prices have caused the problem, and the region’s home prices have been hit harder than much of the nation. Average home sale prices in metro Atlanta have dropped to 1999 prices, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
Metro Atlanta had the highest percentage of sales value loss from September to October in 20 metropolitan areas, dropping 5.9 percent. The next highest loss was in Tampa, at 1.5 percent, this month’s Case-Shiller report said.
CoreLogic says an additional 85,819 metro Atlanta residential properties, or 7 percent, were near negative equity for the third quarter this year in the region. That is also down slightly from this time last year, when the number was 87,615.
Nevada had the highest rate of underwater mortgages at 58 percent, followed by Arizona with 47 percent, Florida with 44 percent and Michigan with 35 percent.
