How Many Norwood Homes Are Underwater?

The following is by Les Masterson of Patch (Jeffrey Pickette contributed reporting):

The second quarter Zillow Negative Equity Report showed that U.S. homeowners who are underwater (home valued at less than mortgage) are decreasing, but there are still millions with no equity in their homes.

About 12.2 million U.S. homeowners with a mortgage were in negative equity, or underwater, in the second quarter of 2013. That’s an improvement from 13 million in the first quarter and 15.3 million from a year ago. Approximately one-third of American homes are owned without a mortgage, reported Zillow.

In Norwood, about 10 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are “underwater” on their home loans.

The rate in Canton is 11 percent; the rate in Dedham is 11 percent; the rate in Walpole is 9 percent (14 percent in East Walpole); the rate in Sharon is 7 percent; and the rate in Westwood is just 5 percent. Meanwhile, the National rate is 23.8 percent.

Fifty-seven percent of homeowners across the country in negative equity are underwater by 20 percent or more and about 13 percent owes more than twice what their home is worth, said Zillow.

The Boston metropolitan area has lower underwater rates than the rest of the nation. Boston has one of the lowest metro percentages (15 percent), which is much better than the three worst: Las Vegas (48 percent), Atlanta (44 percent) and Orlando (40 percent).

"Widespread rising home values during the past year have helped chip away at negative equity nationwide, helping many homeowners who were only modestly underwater to come up for air. For those homeowners who are deeply underwater, though, there is still a long row to hoe," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries.

"The frustratingly slow pace of negative equity declines in the face of such robust home value appreciation is a direct result of the fact that many people in the hardest-hit markets are underwater by an enormous amount. Because of this, negative equity will be a factor in these markets for years to come, constraining the supply of homes for sale and keeping people out of the market who might otherwise get involved,” he said.

Click here to see the full map from Zillow.