5.6 percent of Houston foreclosures seriously underwater, says RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac today released its Year-End 2015 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report. The report found that at the end of 2015, seriously underwater properties were down 481,292 from 6.9 million in the third quarter and 616,189 from 7.1 million from a year prior.

• Closing out 2015, 6.4 million (6,436,381) U.S. homes were seriously underwater– about 25 percent were underwater– representing 11.5 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage
• There were 12.6 million (12,621,274) U.S. homes that were equity rich, or at least 50 percent equity. This represents 22.5 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage.
• At of the end of 2015, 49.7 percent of all homes in foreclosure had some equity, marking the highest percentage since Q3 2013– when RealtyTrac began tracking.
  • This is up from 43.3 percent of all homes in foreclosure with equity at the end of the third quarter of 2015.
  • At the end of 2014, 34.6 percent of all homes were equity rich.

In Houston, 5.6 percent of foreclosed homes are seriously underwater, which is about 70,130 in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land MSA. RealtyTrac reported 306,476 foreclosures that are equity rich, or 24.4 percent.

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In Harris County, RealtyTrac reported of the 1,616,961 properties, about 6 percent are seriously underwater.

On a state-wide basis, Texas had 21.6 percent of homes with equity and 6.4 percent of foreclosures are seriously underwater.