Market Finance Time

According to a new study homeowners owing more on a mortgage than their homes are worth, prices has left about 20% of U.S, Wall Street Journal reports. It means 20% of homeowners are ‘underwater’ and till now there is no ways to stabilize the housing market.

Experts of real estate Web site Zillow.com reported that 21.8% of all U.S. homes, representing more than 20 million residences, were in a “negative equity” or “underwater” position after prices dropped more than 14% nationally in the year ended March 31.

All analysis is based on the mortgage balance at the time of purchase and the price changes that have occurred since. It does not take into account that some homeowners may have paid down principal along the way.

Also it may look like a conservative approach because the trend has been for people to strip value from their homes in the form of home equity loans and lines of credit, than to add value by paying down their mortgages.