5 housing predictions from a property-level profile of underwater homeowners

Takeaways:

• There are still 7.4 million who owe at least 25 percent more on their home than what it is worth — representing 13 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage.
  
• 30 percent of underwater homeowners don’t live in their home, which could mean that more single-family rental inventory will become available.
  
• The average loan-to-value ratio is 182 percent, which might mean that the underwater problem could linger for at least another five years. 

The shrinking pool of underwater homeowners continues to have an important impact on the U.S. housing market.

Using the property-level data behind RealtyTrac’s latest Home Equity and Underwater Report, we profiled the 7.4 million U.S. homeowners still seriously underwater to make five housing market predictions relating to for-sale inventory, single-family rentals, refinancing, the path of the housing recovery and the distressed housing niche.

Daren Blomquist is the vice president of RealtyTrac.

Email Daren Blomquist.