Zillow report: 45% of '06 buyers underwater
Real estate technology brief
By Inman News, Wednesday, August 20, 2008.Real estate technology company Zillow released a market report this month revealing that 29.1 percent of homeowners who purchased in the past five years owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth. The company also reported that about 45 percent of those who bought at the national market peak in 2006 now have negative equity, and about 60 percent of homeowners in the Western region of the country who purchased in 2006 are now underwater.
Also, Zillow announced this week that Chicago-based Baird & Warner has agreed to share property listings information for display at the Zillow.com site. Zillow has hundreds of partners who are sharing listings with the site since Zillow began to accept listings feeds in November 2007, and the site now offers information for over 3 million for-sale properties. Baird & Warner has 32 offices and 2,000 sales professionals in the Chicago area.
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Submitted by Peter Contostavlos on August 21, 2008 - 5:43am.
Of course they are underwater, this is not surprising, stop making it out to be more than it is. It is not all that critical as long as they don't have to sell or refinance. Since most people bought with little or no money down at the height of the market there was no cushion of equity in their purchase. The more telling statistic would be how many of these homeowners are not making their mortgage payments, are behind in their mortgage payments, or in some stage of foreclosure or pre-foreclosure.
Submitted by Douglas Campbell on August 21, 2008 - 7:18am.
I am one of those that sold, and bought, at the height of the frenzy 2+ years ago. I also have one of the Option ARM's which allowed me to jump into much larger digs. The good news is, I still have approximately 40-45k equity on my new home and as long as I maintian payments (interest+principal)there shouldn't be a problem. My lender decided to "freeze" my HELOC... probably based on "generalites" cited by Zillow and others, that I live in a declining market (note: I haven't used my Heloc nor do I intend to, so its moot). I just love how everybody's running around like chicken little and becoming completly un-glued!! Real estate is cyclical and this too shall pass albeit taking longer then one would expect.
Submitted by Mike Robinson on August 21, 2008 - 9:05pm.
And I'm underwater on my stock portfolio and 401k. These are tough times. Briefly glancing at Zillow, I have to ask what the basis is for the analysis.What I saw looked short on details.
Submitted by Eric Reque on August 22, 2008 - 12:37pm.
www.MyHouseIsUnderwater.com
is a great website for borrowers that are upside down.