Fewer Dallas-Fort Worth homeowners upside down on loans

The number of Dallas-Fort Worth homeowners who owe more than their houses are worth has declined significantly in the last year.

Just over 14 percent of Dallas-area homeowners who have loans were upside down at the end of June, researchers at CoreLogic report. The negative equity rate was 30.45 percent for the D-FW area a year earlier.

In the Fort Worth area, 13.5 percent of homes were underwater with debt at the end of June. About 155,000 D-FW home loans have negative equity, according to the report released Thursday.

Nationwide, 23 percent of residential properties with loans had negative equity in the second quarter, CoreLogic reports. That's down from 24 percent in the first quarter and is the second consecutive quarter of improvement.

Homeowners who owe more than their houses are worth are considered more likely to default on their loans.

"Negative equity continues to both drive foreclosures and impede the housing market recovery," Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in the report. "With nearly 5 million borrowers currently in severe negative equity, defaults will remain at a high level for an extended period of time."

CoreLogic estimates that 11 million homes nationwide have negative equity. Altogether the owners owe $766 billion more than their properties would sell for. The improvement in negative equity in the D-FW area comes at a time when home prices have increased marginally and the number of sales has risen.

But foreclosure rates in the D-FW area remain high.

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