An Arizona home.Listen:
The percentage of homes in the Tucson area that have a mortgage balance that is higher than their value dropped to 14.1 percent, reported real estate data company RealtyTrac.
The number is now down to a third of what it was after the housing bubble burst and the market bottomed out.
“When we look at the peak of the underwater crisis, we’re talking about 40 to 50 percent of homeowners who were underwater in Pima County,” said RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist.
For the first time since the crash, homeowners who are equity rich (owe less than half of what their home is worth) now outnumber those who are underwater.
“As we see more homeowners regain equity, and especially become equity-rich, they’re in a position now where they are much more likely to want to sell because they have that equity that gives them enough to put as a down payment on their next home,” he said.
Blomquist said this could help solve a problem that the Tucson housing market is going through, low inventory.
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