This month I thought you might be interested in something different but still relevant about the property world.
We all know that the fall in US property values in the GFC was horrendous, for the past year or so like us they have been climbing out of the negative gearing hole.
This is important to us for several reasons not least of which is a recovery in property prices in the USA will herald the rise in interest rates there we need to lower our dollar.
More owners transitioned from negative equity into positive territory last year, a good sign for the economy overall. But many remain underwater on their mortgages.
This came from an article in the Washington Post.
WASHINGTON — The economy may be growing at a frustratingly slow pace, but one piece of it is booming: American homeowners' equity holdings — the market value of their houses minus their mortgage debts — soared by nearly $2.1 trillion last year to $10 trillion.
Big numbers, you say, and hard to grasp. But look at it this way: Thanks to rising prices and equity levels, about 4 million owners around the country last year were able to climb out of the financial tar pit of the housing bust — negative equity.
Negative equity gums up people's lives and the real estate marketplace as a whole. It makes it difficult or impossible for many owners to refinance out of a higher-cost mortgage into a more affordable one. It makes it painful to sell — you've got to bring cash to the table to pay off what you still owe to the bank. Plus almost no one wants to lend you money, at least not at reasonable interest rates secured by your real estate, when you're deeply underwater. So you're likely to spend less and invest less, and you're probably not going to buy another house. Nor will potential new buyers be able to purchase yours.
So when 4 million owners manage to transition out of negative equity into positive territory, that's significant news not just for them personally, but for the economy overall.
CoreLogic, reported the impressive shrinkage of negative equity. According to researchers, nearly 43 million owners with mortgage debt have positive equity. Roughly 6.5 million owners are still in negative equity positions, however, down from more than 10 million a year ago and 12 million in 2009.
Who are they and where are they? Not surprisingly, they are heavily concentrated in areas that saw the wildest price run-ups, the heaviest use of toxic loan products and the steepest plunges during the crash. In Nevada, 30.4% of all owners with mortgages are underwater. In Florida, the percentage is 28.1%, and in Arizona, it's 21.5%. Still, all three areas have improved sharply over the last two years.
Among the best markets if you're measuring for positive equity: Texas, where just 3.9% of owners are in negative positions, Alaska (4.2%), New York (6.3%), Oklahoma (6.4%) and the District of Columbia (6.5%.) Higher-priced houses generally have lower rates of negative equity compared with houses in lower-priced areas, many of which saw construction booms for entry-level, low- and moderate-cost homes in the suburbs of major cities during the boom years. Just 8% of mortgaged homes worth more than $200,000 have negative equity, compared with 19% of homes under $200,000.
Makes what happened to the Gold Coast market over the past few years look like a walk in the park and it does not begin to describe the personal pain and suffering that must have been involved.