12 States Where Homeowners Are Deep Underwater On Their Mortgages

Alex Barth via flickr

1.4 million borrowers moved to positive equity (where homeowners owe less on their mortgage than their home is worth) in the year through the end of Q3. This is according to CoreLogic's latest negative equity report.

But a whopping 10.7 million or 22 percent of all residential properties with mortgages were underwater by the end of Q3.

"The substantive gain in house prices made in 2012, partly due to tight inventory caused by negative equity’s lock-out effect, has paradoxically alleviated some of the pain," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic said in a press release.

We drew on CoreLogic's report to highlight the 12 states that are deepest in negative equity. We ordered them based on the number of underwater mortgages as a share of total mortgages (i.e. negative equity share).

Note: Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio is a measure used by financial institutions to gauge risk before approving a mortgage. The higher the LTV ratio, the higher the risk and the more expensive the loan.