Millions of owners remain underwater

Five years after the housing recovery began, more than 5 million U.S. homeowners owe considerably more on their homes than the homes are worth, according to Attom Data Solutions.

The real-estate information service found that at the end of the first quarter, 5.5 million homeowners, or 9.7 percent of all homeowners with mortgages, owed at least 25 percent more on their mortgages than their home’s value, down from 6.7 million (12 percent of homeowners) a year earlier.

With 17.1 percent of homeowners underwater, Ohio has the nation’s second-highest level of negative equity after Nevada.

In several cities, including Columbus and other major Ohio cities, the number of underwater homeowners actually rose during the first quarter, although the number remains well below year-ago levels.

Attom found that 14 percent of Columbus-area homeowners were underwater at the end of March, compared with 12.6 percent at the end of December and 16.8 percent at the end of March 2016.

Four of the nation’s top five metro areas with the highest percentage of seriously underwater homeowners are in Ohio, led by Cleveland, where 22.9 percent of homeowners owe far more than their home is worth, followed by Las Vegas (22.1 percent), Akron (20.3 percent), Dayton (20.3 percent) and Toledo (20 percent).

“While negative equity continued to trend steadily downward in the first quarter, it remains stubbornly high in oftenoverlooked pockets of the housing market,” said Daren Blomquist, a senior vice president at Attom.

“For example, we continue to see one in five properties seriously underwater in several Rust Belt cities along with Las Vegas and central Florida. Additionally, close to one-third of homes valued below $100,000 are still seriously underwater.”