One in Two Florida Homes with a Mortgage Now Underwater

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(ORLANDO, FL) -- According to a recent report by Santa Ana, California based First American Corelogic, Florida now has the third-highest percentage of homes with negative equity as of February 2010.

Negative equity is often referred to as "under water" or "upside down" properties were the borrower owes more on their mortgage than their properties are worth.

In February over 48% of all Florida's mortgages were under water. That means that nearly 2.2 million of the more than 4.5 million Florida mortgages are now upside down, or one out of every two homes with a mortgage. There are also an additional 171,710 Florida mortgages (an additional 3.8%) also nearing negative equity status.

Nationwide, more than 11.3 million (24%) of all residential properties with mortgages were in negative equity at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 10.7 million (23%) at the end of the third quarter, according to First American CoreLogic's report.

Only Nevada, which had 70 percent of all of its mortgaged properties under water, and Arizona, at 51 percent, had more upside-down properties than Florida.

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