Mark Hanson has an interesting article about what exactly can be defined as “Negative Equity”?
It is a very important question, as the answer determines how upwardly mobile the home-owning population really is.
“If homeowners can’t sell for enough to pay a Realtor 6%, extract the down on the new property, and pay for moving costs they are effectively in a negative equity position. Homeowners know this — a homeowner that has only 15% equity knows they are trapped in their house.”
Following the link for the full article and to check out the chart. Incredibly, Maryland looks better than many states in the negative equity department.
Short sales appear to have a busy future.
