35% of California Homes with Mortgages Are Underwater

According to a recent report from First American CoreLogic, 35% of California homes with mortgages were underwater as of September, 2009. Results were generally better in the Bay Area, although not in the East Bay.


There's no mystery about why so many homes in the East Bay are underwater. Prices there have fallen further than in the other regions.


Note: I don't have aggregate price indexes for the regions shown in the First American report, so I just showed the component counties.

The number of underwater homeowners continues to grow. (See this map for numbers from November, 2008.) As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the number of foreclosures is likely to continue growing as well.