23% of Borrowers have Negative Equity
From the WSJ: 1 in 4 Borrowers Under Water
The proportion of U.S. homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the properties are worth has swelled to about 23% …
Home prices have fallen so far that 5.3 million U.S. households are tied to mortgages that are at least 20% higher than their home’s value …
[N]egative equity “is an outstanding risk hanging over the mortgage market,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist of First American Core Logic. “It lowers homeowners’ mobility because they can’t sell, even if they want to move to get a new job.”