Thursday, February 10, 2011

Underwater homes the new "normal"?

The Tampa Bay Business Journal recently reported that nearly half of homeowners in Florida had mortgages that were underwater (worth less than what is owed). CoreLogic reports that Pasco and Hillsborough counties are in the top 25 counties in the nation with the highest percentage of mortgages underwater.  We are not alone.  CoreLogic, also reports that while Florida had a negative equity of 46 percent, two other states had higher rates of negative equity--Nevada (67 percent) and Arizona (49 percent).  The following video shows the impact on some underwater homeowners in California.

    Government efforts to help underwater homeowners have not yet been well received by banks and homeowners can only hope for an imminent death knell for the housing recession.  That's one bell that can't ring soon enough for any of us.

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