25% of all mortgages are underwater. 40% of mortgages taken out in 2006 are underwater.

 

^The 5 states with the worst statistics:

State totals: The majority of underwater mortgages are heavily concentrated in five states that have particularly suffered from the housing bust: Nevada, at 65%; Arizona, at 48%; Florida, at 45%; Michigan, at 37%; and California, at 35%.

 

Awesome! I'm moving in.

 

Excellent! Garage is kind of small for a lift though, but you can enjoy kids and baseball in the summer months.

 

Our home at the beach was appraised at 15% below our purchase price when we refinanced last March but it is now only 8% below that so we are encouraged by not only the resale values here but new home sales in our communtiy have taken off substantially. Our home in Wilmington which we sold 2 1/2 years ago has dropped 26% in appraised value so I guess the timing was right for us. And as always location, location, location.

 

Once again, it's location, location, location. 2.5 years ago, before this mess started, our house in NC appraised at $300k even. Since we were paying $295k, that was cool....

This year, we went to refi away from our interest-only 7% loan, and guess what the house appraised for? $305k. Could have knocked me over with a feather...

Dave

 

I am an appraiser by trade, many of you were correct that it is highly localized. I am in the northern Virginia area(DC Metro), and I have seen things stabilizing and increasing in the 150-350k range. In our area, however, these are mostly townhouses and very small single families, essentially starter homes for younger home buyers possibly taking advantage of the first time home buyer credit. Also in this area, there is very little supply in this range. The median home price range is about 400-500k. In a more diversified/normalized area it will be much different. Let me know if i can help out more via PM.
-Matt

 

Sales up here in Ohio are pretty slow, especially on higher end properties.
Records checks indicate sales at around 92% of listing prices, but upwards of a year or more for sale and already lowered from previous valuations. It's hard to tell if they would actually appraise at those listing prices.
I have location. I would take 10% less to upgrade to properties that are 20% off their highs.

 

I just received my property evaluation from the county assessor and the house we bought 5 years ago for $175,000 had gone up to $210,100 in 2008. Now, it comes in at $165,200 for 2009. Go figure.

 

Real estate agents around here list sales for the previous six months. I checked the latest list. None in my current tier (two-bedroom) has sold at all since I bought mine in Jan 2006. It is considered one of about three tiers (out of 27) that are most desirable, because of the spectacular views of DC and its monuments. That was my big problem with comps when I refinanced twice at the beginning of the year. They used comps that weren't comps at all. Not even close. Fortunately, it didn't keep me from being able to refinance, but a sale would have been a big problem. Also, the higher the floor, the higher the price, in general. Two buildings (18 and 19 stories).

So I checked sales of comparable condos in the tier I used to live in (one-bedroom). I sold that one in Feb 2006 for $435K, pretty much at the top of the market. It sold in 10 days. The two comps in that tier sold for $381,500 in Oct and $385,000 in June, about a 12% drop. Actually, more than that because values had been increasing here every year by quite a bit. One was on the market for 227 days and the other for 39 days. So you can see that, even in a very desirable, close-in location, the market has taken a hit. Or as some call it, an "adjustment". Whatever you call it, it is painful if you are a seller.